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THE  COMING  OF  MAN 


THE   COMING    OF   MAN 


BY 

JOHN  M.  TYLER 

PROFESSOR    EMERITUS    OF    BIOLOGY 
AMHERST    COLLEGE 


///T/e/r1rws: 

////III  '/  I  MHWW'' 

irrWdlen 


BOSTON 

MARSHALL   JONES  COMPANY 

1923 


COPYRIGHT  •  1923  •   BY 
MARSHALL    JONES    COMPANY 


THE    PLIMPTON    P R E S S  •  N  O K W O O D  • M A S S A CH U S ETT S 
PRINTED      IN       THE      UNITED       STATES      OF      AMERICA 


LIBRARY 

N.  C.  state  College 


PREFACE 

IT  seems  needless  to  write  a  preface  to  a  book  which  is 
merely  and  altogether  an  introduction,  a  small  book  on  a 
great  subject. 

We  are  beginning  to  appreciate  the  importance  of  the  story 
of  man's  slow  and  endless  ''coming."  To  select  and  chronicle 
a  few  of  the  most  conspicuous  successive  stages  of  his  ascent 
and  to  sketch  their  essential  characteristics  is  far  from  easy. 
To  discover  the  meaning  of  the  changes  and  processes  involved 
in  his  ascent  is  like  searching  for  buried  treasures.  Con- 
densed histories  of  the  growth  of  the  United  States  during  a 
few  centuries  fill  a  dozen  or  more  large  volumes.  We  must  at- 
tempt to  compress  the  whole  biological  history  of  animal  and 
human  life  into  one  booklet.     The  attempt  seems  absurd. 

We  will  begin  by  enumerating-  the  most  prominent  stages, 
the  land  marks,  of  human  evolution,  the  rise  of  one  function 
after  another  to  preeminence  in  the  animal  body.  We  will 
not  attempt  to  construct  a  genealogical  tree  of  the  animal 
kingdom;  but  only  to  note  the  appearance,  advance  or  cul- 
mination of  organs  or  powers  which  gave  their  possessors 
marked  advantage  and  temporary  or  permanent  success. 
We  will  try  to  introduce  the  reader  to  a  few  typical  familiar 
forms,  which  appear  to  have  been  stranded  near  the  high- 
water  mark  of  the  tide  of  life  in  some  long-passed  time,  and 
thus  make  him  acquainted  with  the  leading  characters  or 
actors  of  their  place  and  day.  We  cannot  attempt  to  give  a  de- 
tailed description  of  the  anatomy  of  these  unconscious  heroes 
of  the  great  drama;  but  only  to  notice  their  deeds,  efforts, 
struggles  and  achievements.  At  best  our  sketch  can  be  only  a 
rude  outline  devoid  of  all  shading  and  of  many  important  fea- 
tures: we  hope  that  it  is  true  substantially  and  not  misleading. 


y      *  iS^ 


vi  PREFACE 

Having  glanced  at  some  of  the  chief  actors  we  will  look  at 
the  stage-setting,  their  surroundings  and  environment,  their 
relations  to  the  great  world  in  which  they  were  feeling  their 
way.  Was  their  situation,  perhaps,  not  altogether  unlike  our 
own  to-day?  Can  we  draw  any  useful  inferences  from  their 
successes  or  failures?  Above  all  what  constituted  fitness  to 
survive  and  progress,  and  can  we  derive  from  their  experience 
any  suggestions  as  to  what  are  the  elements  or  marks  of  fitness 
under  present  conditions?  Do  the  unintelligent  efforts  and 
experiments  of  our  "humble  fellows"  of  times  passed,  give  us 
a  reasonable  ground  of  hope  in  a  brighter  future?  These  are 
the  vital,  all-important  questions. 

The  book  is  intended  to  be  an  introduction  in  a  more  literal 
sense.  The  references  at  the  foot  of  many  pages  and  the 
bibliography  are  intended  to  lead  the  reader  to  an  acquaint- 
ance with  a  few  of  the  thinkers  and  writers  who  have  thrown 
light  on  special  subjects.  If  he  will  follow  these  suggestions, 
he  will  be  led  far  in  excellent  company  into  wide  and  fascinat- 
ing fields  of  research  and  discovery. 

Finally,  the  book  is  written  especially  for  those  who  have 
never  found  time  or  inclination  to  study  our  benighted  ances- 
tors and  predecessors,  and  their  magnificent  and  truly  heroic 
achievements.  Not  able  to  talk,  or  suffering  from  the  malady 
of  thought,  they  ''lost  themselves"  in  their  work.  Certainly 
''they  wrestled  hard  as  we  do  now."  If  it  can  persuade  a  few 
thoughtful  souls  to  wonder  at  the  amoeba,  to  become  interested 
in  the  highly  significant  hydra,  to  admire  clams  and  worms, 
to  marvel  at  the  strange  experiments  of  reptiles,  and  gain  a 
fellow-feeling  for  the  plodding  primitive  mammal,  the  sleek 
cat  and  "aspiring  ape,"  it  will  not  have  been  written  in  vain. 

If  I  am  not  mistaken,  no  less  a  thinker  than  the  keen,  stern, 
powerful  theologian  Jonathan  Edwards,  a  loving  observer  of 
the  beauties  of  nature  in  his  j^ounger  days,  has  told  us  that 
supreme  virtue  consists  in  love  for  being  in  general. 


PAGE 
V 

I 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER 

Preface  

I.  The  Coming  of  Life 

bacteria,  protozoa  and  the  cell,  amoeba, 
plants  and  animals.  coelenterates,  organs 
and  tissues.  worms.  the  building  of  a  body, 
annelids.  the  rise  of  muscle  and  sense-organs. 

II.  The  Coming  of  a  Backbone      ig 

EXTERNAL  PROTECTIVE  SKELETON  OF  MOLLUSKS. 
THE  CLAM.  SQUIDS.  EXTERNAL  LOCOMOTIVE  SKELE- 
TON OF  ARTHROPODS.  INSECTS.  SMALL  SIZE. 
METAMORPHOSIS.  VERTEBRATES  AND  THE  INTERNAL 
LOCOMOTIVE  SKELETON.  BONE,  MUSCLE  AND  BRAIN. 
SHARKS  AND  GANOIDS. 

III.  The  Rise  of  Land  Life 31 

GANOIDS  AND  LIFE  IN  FRESH  WATER.  EMERGENCE 
ON  LAND.  AMPHIBIA.  RISE  OF  TEMPERATURE. 
DECREASE  IN  NUMBER  OF  EGGS.  CARE  OF  YOUNG. 
REPTILES,  BULK  AND  POWER.  BIRDS  AND  SWIFT- 
NESS. MAMMALS  AND  SUCKLING  OF  YOUNG.  PRI- 
MATES   AND   ARBOREAL    LIFE.      HAND   AND    BRAIN. 

IV.  The  Coming  of  Savage  Man 41 

CLIMATIC  CHANGES  AND  FORCED  MIGRATIONS.  DE- 
SCENT FROM  THE  TREES.  APE-MAN.  THE  IRANIAN 
PLATEAU  AND  ROUTES  OF  EMIGRATION.  NORTHERN 
EUROPE  DURING  THE  GLACIAL  PERIOD.  FAMILY 
AND  SOCIAL  LIFE.  BURIAL  OF  DEAD.  WONDER  AND 
THOUGHT.      THE   CRO-MAGNON  RACE. 

V.  The  Dawn  of  Civilization 53 

INDUSTRIES.  DOLMENS.  RISE  OF  AGRICULTURE. 
TAMING  OF  THE  SAVAGE.  TRIBAL  LIFE  AND  TRIBAL 
CONSCIENCE.  SOCIAL  LIFE,  FOLKWAYS  AND  MORALS. 
PRIMITIVE  RELIGION.  CULTS  AND  MYSTERIES.  THE 
GODDESS. 

VI.  The  Rise  of  Personality 64 

TRADE,  commerce,  MIGRATIONS.  THE  COMING  OF 
the  ARYANS.  THE  ACHAEANS.  CULTS  AND  THEO- 
RIES. DIVERSITY  OF  GIFTS  AND  TENDENCIES.  DI- 
VERGENCE. THE  RISE  OF  THE  HERO.  PERSONALITY 
AND   LOYALTY. 

vii 


vlli  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

VII.   The  Logic  of  Evolution 71 

CELLS,  TISSUES,  AND  ORGANS.  ERA  OF  DIGESTION 
AND  REPRODUCTION.  RISE  OF  THE  MUSCULAR 
SYSTEM.  THE  LOCOMOTIVE  SKELETON.  LOCO- 
MOTION, SENSE-ORGANS  AND  BRAIN.  CARE  OF 
YOUNG.  EDUCABILHY.  V7EAKNESS  AND  V^ITS. 
MAN,  MORALS  AND  RELIGION.  SUCCESSIVE  DYNAS- 
TIES IN  EVOLUTION.  REVOLUTIONS  AND  OUT- 
BREAKS. REVERSAL  OF  LOGICAL  SEQUENCE  AND 
DEGENERATION.      A  LIBERAL  HUMAN   EDUCATION. 

VIII.   Nature  and  man 83 

SEAT    OF     control     IN    THE     BODY.       DIRECTIVITY. 

neo-darwinians  and  neo-lamarckians.  na- 
ture AS  FINAL  ARBITER.  OUR  ABUSE  AND  EX- 
PLOITATIONS OF  NATURE.  IS  NATURE  MORAL, 
IMMORAL  OR  UNMORAL.?  DANGERS  OF  COMPLEXITY. 
ASYMMETRY.    CRIPPLES  AND  ^REVERSED  CRIPPLES." 

IX.   Man  and  Environment 97 

ADAPTATION.  SURROUNDINGS.  ENVIRONMENT.  IM- 
PORTANCE OF  RELATIONS.  EVOLUTION  OF  DIS- 
COVERY.      NEEDS.       ARTIFICIAL    ENVIRONMENT. 

X.  The  Survival  of  the  Fittest 106 

CRITERIA  OF  FITNESS.  VERTEBRATES  VS.  MOL- 
LUSKS.  AMPHIBIA  VS.  SHARKS.  MAMMALS  VS. 
REPTILES.  PRIMATES  AND  APE-MAN  VS.  CARNIVORA. 
DOMINANCE  AND  FITNESS.  SOCRATES  AND  CALLI- 
CLES.  LIFE  AND  DISTANT  ENDS.  NATURE  VS. 
DOMINANCE.     ADVENTURE. 

XI.   Perfect  Health 119 

the  tyranny  of  the  weakest  part,  —  and  of 
the  strongest  part.  symmetry  and  health, 
a  healthy  nervous  system.  healthy-minded- 
ness.  interests.  values.  natural  devel- 
opment of  the  child.  value  of  play  instincts, 
adolescence.  nature  and  development  of 
youth.  the  adult.  danger  of  specializa- 
tion and  over-adaptation.  young  old  men. 
contagion  of  health. 

Bibliography 136 

Index 145 


THE  COMING  OF  MAN 


THE  COMING  OF  MAN 


THE  COMING  OF  LIFE 

IT  was  very  long  ago,  far  longer  than  we  can  possibly 
conceive.  The  everlasting  hills  were  not  yet  born,  the 
continents  hardly  sketched.  We  may  stimulate  our 
imagination  to  attempt  the  task  by  putting  it  in  a  somewhat 
different  form. 

Let  us  take  a  measuring  rod  a  little  more  than  eight  feet 
long;  let  every  inch  correspond  roughly  to  100,000  years. 
The  uppermost  tenth  of  an  inch  representing  10,000  years 
would  cover  the  whole  historical  period,  the  epochs  of  the  dis- 
covery of  metals,  and  overlap  the  New  Stone  Age.  One  inch 
carries  us  far  back  in  Palaeolithic  time.  Osborn  places  the 
appearance  of  pithecaifthropus,  the  ape-man,  at  about 
500,000  B.  c,  fi.ve  inches  from  the  top  of  our  scale. ^  The  be- 
ginning of  the  Cenozoic  period,  or  Age  of  ]Mammals,  the  last 
and  shortest  of  the  gfeat  geological  periods,  some  3,000,000 
years,  carries  us  down  two  and  one-half  feet.  The  Mesozoic 
period,  the  Age  of  Reptiles,  occupying  9,000,000  years,  would 
require  ninety  inches  and  cover  nearly  the  whole  of  our  rod, 
on  which  all  human  history  occupied  a  part  of  one-tenth  of 
an  inch.  The  Palaeozoic  period  was,  perhaps,  twice  as  long 
as  the  Mesozoic,  about  18,000,000  years. 
'This    is    Schuchert's    reckoning,    giving    a    total    of    some 

1  24:41.     (i>-/  =  Number    in    Bibliography:    4i  =  Page    of    Book.) 

H.  85. 

I 


2  "THE  COMING  OF  MAN 

30,000,000  years  to  geologic  time.  The  amount  was  considered 
by  him  very  conservative,  and  by  most  geologists  as  quite 
inadequate.^  It  is  a  minimum.  The  weight  of  evidence 
seems  to  favor  a  length  of  from  90,000,000  to  120,000,000 
years;  some  would  make  it  much  greater. 

Into  this  ancient  world  life  stole  very  quietly  and  without 
observation.  Our  most  primitive  forms  of  life,  and  they  have 
already  advanced  far,  are  the  bacteria.^  They  are  exceedingly 
minute,  thousands  together  would  not  cover  the  comma  on  a 
page  of  print.  They  seem  to  be  composed  of  a  substance 
which  we  may  call  protoplasm.  Many  are  too  small  to  be 
visible  under  the  highest  powers  of  our  microscopes;  and 
we  still  know  comparatively  little  of  the  finer  structure  of 
even  the  higher  and  larger  forms. 

They  show  great  variety  in  size,  form  and  structure. 
Usually  they  resemble  spheres  or  short  rods;  some  approach 
the  lowest  unicellular  animals,  the  protozoa;  others  are  scarcely 
distinguishable  from  the  lowest  plants,  the  protophyta.  They 
form  a  group  showing  great  variety,  are  exceedingly  gener- 
alized, and  the  persistent  survival  or  development  of  such 
a  host  of  forms  is  the  highest  testimonial  to  the  dour  vitality 
of  the  stock. 

Wherever  life  is  possible  there  we  find  bacteria,  in  the 
sea,  in  hot  springs,  in  the  frozen  north,  on  mountain-rocks, 
almost  everywhere  in  the  uppermost  four  or  five  feet  of  the 
soil,  in  the  bodies  of  plants  and  animals.  They  fit  into  every 
crack  and  cranny  in  the  world.  Some  flourish  in  light  and 
air,  to  others  these  are  harmful  or  destructive.  They  ask 
very  little  from  nature,  take  whatever  she  offers  and  thrive."* 

They  are  admirably  adapted  to  live  in  an  inorganic  world 
or  on  dead  material.  Plants  and  animals  die.  Under  the 
influence  of  the  bacteria  the  proteins  of  their  bodies  are 
changed  over  into  ammonia,  and  finally  into  nitrates,  fit  food 
for  plants;    other  compounds  are  similarly  handled.     They 

2  H.  85. 

2  2:  26.    no. 

*  G.  80. 


"fHE  COMING  OF  LIFE  3 

form  the  essential  link  in  the  round  of  organized  material 
stored  up  by  the  plant;  eaten,  used,  and  cast  out  by  the 
animal;  and  changed  again  into  plant  food  by  these  micro- 
scopic chemists.  But  they  are  not  limited  to  this  kind  of  food- 
material. 

One  of  the  greatest  triumphs  of  modern  science  is  the  fixa- 
tion, combination  and  utilization  of  atmospheric  nitrogen,  a 
stubborn  inert  material  which  refuses,  or  is  very  slow,  to 
combine  with  other  elements.  The  bacteria  solved  this  prob- 
lem millions  of  years  ago;  in  root-tubercles,  and  in  the  soil 
they  are  carrying  on  the  same  work  to-day  bare-handed,  not 
in  great  laboratories.  It  is  probable  that  carbon,  either  in 
the  form  of  coal  or  charcoal,  may  be  oxidized  by  certain  of 
the  soil  bacteria.  Carbon,  at  any  ordinary  temperature,  seems 
even  more  inert  than  nitrogen.  They  are  said  to  be  able  to 
oxidize  paraffine  and  other  resistant  compounds.  All  this 
marvellous  work  of  chemical  analysis  and  synthesis  goes  on 
in  or  around  the  bodies  of  minute  bacteria  whose  only  re- 
agents are  such  as  the  protoplasm  can  manufacture  in  and 
for  itself.  Every  one  is  a  marvellous  synthetic  laboratory, 
building  up  more  complex  compounds  out  of  simpler  ones, 
the  work  which  modern  chemists  find  most  fascinating  and 
difficult. 

Their  chief  reagents  in  this  synthetic  work  are  the  enzymes 
which  are  capable  of  bringing  about  changes  in  various  sub- 
stances without  becoming  a  part  of  the  final  product.  They 
seem  to  produce  combinations  without  remaining  in  them; 
hence  are  not  used  up,  but  theoretically  may  be  used  in- 
definitely. A  small  amount  of  enzyme  can  do  a  large  amount 
of  work  and  synthesize  a  great  amount  of  material.  They 
are  strange  complex  substances  about  which  we  still  know 
very  little;  but  the  bacteria  produce  them  in  great  variety  and 
use  them  for  many  purposes. 

Says  Osborn:  "In  their  power  of  finding  energy  or  food  in 
a  lifeless  world,  the  bacteria  known  as  prototrophic,  or  '  prim- 
itive feeders,'  are  not  only  the  simplest  known  organisms  but 
it  is  probable  that  they  represent  the  survival  of  a  primordial 


4  "fHE  COMING  OF  MAN 

stage  of  life  chemistry.  These  bacteria  derive  both  their 
energy  and  their  nutrition  directly  from  inorganic  chemical 
compounds;  such  types  were  thus  capable  of  living  and 
flourishing  in  the  lifeless  earth  before  the  advent  of  continu- 
ous sunshine  and  long  before  the  first  chlorophyllic  stage 
(algse)  of  the  evolution  of  plant-life."  They  are  anything 
but  structureless,  but  we  still  know  very  Iktle  concerning  their 
structure.  They  are  far  from  homogeneous.  We  find  granules 
of  different  shapes,  sizes,  and  behavior  toward  stains;  net- 
works and  strands  of  various  character.  Vacuoles  play  an 
important  part.  We  will  return  to  this  subject  in  our  glance 
at  protozoa. 

The  bacteria  may  have  remained  for  ages  the  highest  forms 
of  life.  They  cover  a  wide  range  of  structure,  complexity  and 
development.  They  laid  the  first  and  lowest  yet  discovered 
tiers  in  the  foundations  of  life.  They  still  form  an  essential 
link  in  its  maintenance.  They  have  done  their  part  well  and 
thoroughly.  Nature  could  afford  to  spend  milHons  of  years 
in  their  development.  From  them  lines  of  inconceivable  pos- 
sibilities radiate. 

The  Protozoa.  Here  again  we  find  great  variety,  a  host  of 
forms  showing  a  long  development,  great  adaptability  and 
wide  distribution.  We  select  for  our  example  the  amoeba,  an 
exceedingly  common  form  which  has  attracted  and  held  the 
interest  of  all  observers  since  its.  first  discovery.  Though 
far  larger  than  the  average  bacterium,  the  amoeba  is  still 
minute  —  from  %oo  to  Yooo  of  an  inch  in  diameter.  It  is 
a  single  cell,  consisting  of  nucleus  and  cytoplasm,  two  quite 
distinct  portions  developed  and  differentiated  out  af  the  proto- 
plasm of  some  ancient  and  far  simpler  and  primitive  bacterium. 
The  nucleus  is  a  small  body,  staining  deeply  and  showing  the 
presence  of  a  very  peculiar  substance,  chromatin.  This  sub- 
stance is  apparently  present  in  many  bacteria  in  small  granules, 
"a  diffused  nucleus";  in  others  it  seems  to  be  almost  equally, 
distributed  through  the  protoplasm. 

The  cytoplasm  of  the  amoeba  is  a  translucent,   granular 


"fHE  COMING  OF  LIFE  5 

semifluid  substance  about  as  viscid  as  mucilage  or  cold 
molasses.  It  is  not  surrounded  by  any  rigid  cell-membrane 
and  can  put  out  rootlike  or  rounded  projections,  pseudopodia. 
It  can  withdraw  these  or  can  "  flow  "  into  one  of  them  and 
thus  move.  The  secret  of  this  power  of  contractility,  how  a 
little  mass  of  semifluid  substance  can  continually  change  the 
tension  of  different  portions  and  ''  squeeze  "  itself  into  new 
forms,  is  still  an  exceedingly  difficult  question. 

It  distinguishes  its  food  before  it  comes  in  contact  with  it 
and  hence  seems  to  possess  the  sense  of  smell.  It  possesses 
a  power  which  we  must  call  consciousness.  It  responds  to  a 
variety  of  stimuli,  in  certain  situations  it  seems  to  experiment 
by  a  sort  of  ''  trial  and  error  "  and  to  ''  feel  its  way." 

The  engulfed  particle  of  food,  alga  or  bacterium,  is  sur- 
rounded by  a  droplet  or  vacuole  of  acid  fluid  and  is  dis- 
solved, digested;  whatever  is  insoluble  goes  to  the  surface 
and  is  discharged.  The  dissolved  nutriment  is  either  burned 
up  to  furnish  energy  or  stored  up  in  granules,  '^  oil-globules," 
or  other  forms;  some  of  it  passes  into  the  nucleus  and  is  here 
changed  to  cytoplasm  or  nuclear  substance;  here,  and  also  in 
the  cytoplasm,  "  dead  matter  "  is  changed  into  living  sub- 
stance, the  constantly  recurring  miracle  of  life.  The  products 
of  combustion  and  the  waste  substances  of  the  body  are  dis- 
charged or  excreted  at  the  surface  of  the  cell.  Here  also 
oxygen  is  absorbed,  and  respiration  takes  place.  The  amoeba 
is  a  vortex  or  whirlpool  on  the  face  of  nature  continually 
taking  in,  building  up  materials,  using  them  in  a  great  variety 
of  ways,  oxidizing  or  disintegrating  them  again  and  cast- 
ing them  out.  But  it  is  a  very  enduring  permanent  whirl- 
pool outlasting  the  everlasting  hills. 

The  amoeba  grows.  When  it  has  reached  a  certain  size, 
it  divides  into  two  new  and  young  amoebae,  and  there  is  no 
old  amoeba  left  to  die.  It  seems  to  elude  and  outwit  death 
and  to  be  potentially  immortal,  especially  if  the  nucleus  is 
rejuvenated  —  as  is  usually  the  case  among  the  protozoa  — 
by  an  act  of  fusion  or  conjugation  of  two  individuals,  the 
promise  of  sex. 


6  T^HE  COMING  OF  MAN 

We  wondered  at  the  synthetic  and  analytic  processes  going 
on  in  the  bacteria.  The  amoeba  can  depend  on  the  bacteria 
and  algae  for  a  rich  and  constant  supply  of  highly  organized 
food,  a  storehouse  of  potential  energy.  They  relieve  it  of  a 
certain  amount  and  kind  of  work.  But  the  chemistry  of 
the  amoeba  is  anything  but  simple.  It  builds  a  great  variety 
of  substances;  net-works,  fluid  vacuoles,  granules,  threads 
and  masses  of  the  most  diverse  materials.  It  requires  a  long 
list  of  reagents  which  it  manufactures  for  itself,  it  uses  these 
to  make  an  array  of  substances  which  it  distributes  or  combines 
for  a  great  variety  of  purposes..  What  guides,  combines  all 
these  forces  and  processes  into  the  Hfe  of  one  individual  feel- 
ing and  acting  amoeba?  We  have  no  idea.  That  is  one  of 
the  secrets  of  life. 

The  greatest  asset  of  both  bacterium  and  amoeba  is  their 
small  size.  If  of  two  spheres,  one  has  twice  the  diameter 
of  the  other,  the  larger  one  will  have  eight  times  the  mass, 
but  only  four  times  the  surface.  If  they  have  the  same  in- 
ternal structure,  the  same  will  be  true  of  every  granule  and 
vacuole.  Mass  measures  expenses  for  combustion,  etc.;  ex- 
ternal surface  measures  the  amount  of  oxygen  absorbed,  and 
of  carbonic  acid  and  excrete  fluids  discharged.  The  inner 
surface  of  vacuoles  increases  the  amount  of  digestive  and 
other  fluids  secreted,  though  perhaps  somewhat  less  exactly. 
Hence  the  possible  intake  or  income  of  the  animal  is  meas- 
ured by  its  surfaces,  the  expense  by  the  mass  to  be  main- 
tained. 

All  the  complexity  of  the  structure  of  our  internal  organs, 
especially  of  our  digestive,  excretory  and  respiratory  systems, 
represent  an  attempt,  so  to  speak,  to  increase  to  the  utmost 
the  organic  surface  with  the  smallest  increase  of  size  and 
waste.  Increase  in  size  and  bulk  of  any  animal  is  a  costly 
and  dangerous  experiment.  The  microscopic  size  of  protozoa, 
and  the  ultra-minuteness  of  the  bacteria,  means  relatively 
large  incomes  and  small  expenses.  There  is  a  relatively 
large  or  enormous  balance  to  devote  to  reproduction.  Hence 
the  enormously  rapid  reproduction  and  increase  of  these  forms. 


"tHE  COMING  OF  LIFE  7 

We  must  never  think  of  the  amoeba  as  a  simple,  homoge- 
neous body  of  uniform  substance.  It  is  quite  the  reverse  of 
this  in  its  granules  of  nutriment  in  the  most  diverse  grades  of 
assimilation;  in  its  "  formed  materials,"  and  its  reagents;  in 
its  structural  arrangements  and  "  cell-organs."  It  is  a  whole 
chemical  and  physical  laboratory  whose  work  we  have  only 
begun  to  understand  and  appreciate.  It  is  a  hive  of  varied 
industries.  In  some  respects  it  is  far  more  wonderful  than 
the  body  of  higher  animals,  where  all  this  work  is  distributed 
and  writ  large.  Its  wondrous  adaptability  enables  it  to  occupy 
and  possess  every  chink  and  corner  of  the  world  and  to  meet 
every  emergency.  We  cannot  but  feel  that  such  beings  have 
come  to  stay,  that  they  will  surely  succeed  in  the  struggle  for 
survival,  and  existence.     They  can  hold  their  own. 

We  find  among  the  higher  protozoa,  especially  among  the 
tlagellata,  groups  or  colonies  of  cells;  some  fixed,  some  rolling 
or  whirKng  through  the  water.  Usually  the  cells  are  all 
practically  alike;  but  in  volvox  certain  of  them  are  entirely 
devoted  to  reproduction.  The  protozoa  are  forth-putting, 
building  something  more  than  single,  solitary  cells.  This 
looks  promising,  as  if  something  quite  different,  larger  and 
possibly  higher  might  come  out  of  it. 

We  find  consciousness  in  the  amoeba.  Huxley  once  said 
that  the  appearance  of  consciousness,  as  the  result  of  the  ir- 
ritation of  brain  particles,  is  as  inexplicable  as  the  appear- 
ance of  the  djin  when  Aladdin  rubbed  his  lamp  in  the  story. 
And  it  looks  as  if  the  consciousness  of  the  amoeba  might  be 
more  like  the  djin  which  the  fisherman  saw  slowly  emerge 
from  the  jar  which  he  had  drawn  from  the  sea.  It  may  ex- 
pand. But  in  this  part  of  our  first  chapter  our  whole  living 
world  contains  only  bacteria,  protozoa  and  algae.  All  we 
dare  say  is  that  this  looks  decidedly  new,  and  as  if  there 
might  be  something  in  it. 

Protoplasm  is  certainly  "  a  quite  peculiar  juice."  It  looks 
as  if  it  might  be  a  bundle  of  unrealized  possibilities.  Says 
Bergson:  ''The  resistance  of  inert  matter  was  the  obstacle 
that  had  first  to  be  overcome.     Life  seems  to  have  succeeded 


8  "fHE  COMING  OF  MAN 

in  this  by  dint  of  humility,  by  making  itself  very  small  and 
very  insinuating,  bending  to  chemical  and  physical  forces,  con- 
senting even  to  go  a  part  of  the  way  with  them,  like  the  switch 
that  adopts  for  a  while  the  direction  of  the  rail  it  is  endeavor- 
ing to  leave.  Of  phenomena  in  the  simplest  forms  of  life,  it 
is  hard  to  say  whether  they  are  still  physical  and  chemical  or 
whether  they  are  already  vital.  Life  had  to  enter  thus  into 
the  habits  of  inert  matter,  in  order  to  draw  it  little  by  little, 
magnetized,  as  it  were,  to  another  track.  The  animate  forms 
that  first  appeared  were  therefore  of  extreme  simplicity. 
They  were  probably  tiny  masses  of  scarcely  differentiated 
protoplasm,  outwardly  resembling  the  amoeba  observable  to- 
day, but  possessed  of  the  tremendous  internal  push  that  was 
to  raise  them  even  to  the  highest  forms  of  life.  ...  It  suc- 
ceeded in  inducing  an  increasing  number  of  elements,  ready 
to  divide,  to  remain  united.  By  the  division  of  labor  it 
knotted  between  them  an  indissoluble  bond.  .  .  .  Life  is 
tendency,  and  the  essence  of  a  tendency  is  to  develop  in  the 
form  of  a  sheaf  creating,  by  its  very  growth,  divergent  direc- 
tions among  which  its  impetus  is  divided.  This  we  observe 
in  ourselves,  in  the  evolution  of  that  special  tendency  which 
we  call  our  character." 

Life  is  always  sending  its  children  out  into  the  world  to 
seek  a  kingdom;  to  be  fruitful  and  multiply  and  fill  and  pos- 
sess the  earth.  It  is  still  sending  out  its  groups  of  bacteria,  of 
weeds,  of  insect  pests, —  usually  small  forms  of  intense  vi- 
tality, of  great  adaptability,  if  not  already  adapted,  to  a  wide 
range  of  climate  and  other  conditions.  Civilization  often  gives 
them  new  opportunities  and  they  seize  upon  and  make  the 
most  of  them,  and  threaten  to  overwhelm  us. 

The  first  or  a  very  early  great  divergence,  or  setting  out  of 
these  pioneer  adventurers,  resulted  in  the  establishment  of  the 
two  great  organic  kingdoms,  plants  and  animals.  We  have 
only  lately  begun  to  notice  the  experiments  of  bacteria  and 
similar  forms  in  producing  coloring  matters,  pigments,  of  va- 
rious hues  and  chemical  structure.  Coloring  matters  may 
have  played  a  larger  role  in  life  and  development  than  we 


fHE  COMING  OF  LIFE  g 

have  yet  suspected,  for  these  ancient  experimenters  were  great 
utilizers  of  what  at  our  first  glance  seems  to  us  as  mere  by- 
products, as  they  probably  once  were.  Their  present  use  and 
value  in  the  life  of  the  organism  is  still  but  slightly  understood. 
One  of  these  substances  is  chlorophyl,  the  green  matter  in 
the  leaves  of  plants  by  means  of  which  they  utilize  the  energy 
of  the  light  in  the  sun's  rays  to  break  up  carbon  dioxide  and 
build  up  starch.  This  is  only  one  step  in  the  process  by 
which  the  plant  stores  up  food  and  potential  energy  and  passes 
it  over  to  the  animal. 

Chlorophyl  is  one  of  the  most  conspicuous  characteristics 
of  plant  life,  but  probably  not  the  most  fundamental.  We 
have  noticed  that  the  bacteria  are  surrounded  by  a  cell-wall  or 
membrane.  They  cannot,  like  the  amoeba,  engulf  solid  par- 
ticles, but  live  on  fluid  materials  absorbed  from  the  surround- 
ing water.  They  do  not  need  to  go  in  search  of  their  nourish- 
ment, nor  to  recognize  it  when  absorbed.  They  can  remain 
stationary,  or  float. 

In  higher  plants  living  on  the  land  the  water  and  dissolved 
substances  are  gained  by  a  subterranean  root-system.  The 
chlorophyl  is  in  the  leaves  exposing  a  very  large  amount  of 
surface  to  the  light  and  air.  Root  and  leaf  surfaces  are  con- 
nected by  a  stout  elastic  wooden  trunk  through  which  cur- 
rents of  sap  flow  upward  and  downward.  The  plant  wastes 
no  energy  in  locomotion,  its  expenses  are  very  small,  its 
income  is  steady  and  large;  it  has  a  large  surplus  balance  to 
expend  in  growth  and  reproduction.  A  highly  successful 
plant,  like  one  of  our  weeds,  can  grow  rapidly  in  comparatively 
dry  and  poor  soil,  seeds  abundantly,  tolerates  changes  of 
climatic  and  other  conditions,  and  flourishes  where  our  more 
delicate  plants  would  die. 

The  cell-wall  of  cellulose,  the  fluid  nourishment,  the  pres- 
ence of  chlorophyl  are  the  chief  characteristics  of  plants;  yet 
no  one  of  these  is  peculiar  to  them;  the  ability  to  use  CO.  and 
salts  as  building  material  for  starch  and  protein  is  certainly 
peculiar  to  them,  however;  every  one  can  be  found  in  some 
animals.     But  in  plants  they  are  all  combined  in  one  highly 


10  THE  COMING  OF  MAN 

successful  organism,  characterized  by  tendencies  even  more 
than  by  details  of  structure. 

We  left  our  protozoa  as  little  groups  or  colonies  of  cells, 
all  alike  except  that  in  a  few  cases,  as  in  volvox,  certain  cells 
have  been  set  apart  for  reproduction.  That  much  can  be 
realized  at  a  not  much  higher  stage  is  proved  by  the  very  in- 
teresting group  of  sponges,  at  which  we  cannot  afford  to  cast 
even  a  glance.  We  pick  up  our  thread  of  development  with 
the  coelenterates.  These  include  our  common  sea-anemones 
and  their  near  relations,  the  coral  animals,  which  have  con- 
tributed so  much  to  the  upbuilding  and  extension  of  coast 
and  mainland;  also  the  jelly-fishes.  The  group  shows  con- 
siderable variety  of  structure  and  attainment.  Most  of  them 
are  sessile  polj^s;  the  jelly-fishes  are  usually  floating  rather 
than  actively  swimming  forms.  The  general  plan  of  the  group 
is  well  shown  in  our  common  fresh  water  hydra,  which  has 
preserved  many  primitive  characters. 

The  green  hydra  is  a  small  vase-shaped  or  tubular  animal 
about  a  quarter  of  an  inch  in  length;  the  brown  hydra  may  be 
twice  as  large.  It  differs  from  the  rest  of  the  hydroid  polyps 
in  not  being  permanently  attached  but  moving  over  the  stone 
or  stick,  or  swimming  or  floating  in  the  water  from  place  to 
place.  This  exceptional  habit  seems  primitive.  In  its  struc- 
ture it  reminds  us  of  a  lady's  shopping-bag,  covered  with  silk 
and  lined  with  velvet.  The  opening  into  the  bag  corresponds 
to  the  mouth  of  hydra,  the  cavity  is  for  digestion,  the  silk 
and  velvet  materials  to  two  layers  of  cells  enclosing  the  diges- 
tive cavity  or  archenteron.  The  mouth  is  surrounded  by  a 
ring  of  tentacles  armed  with  nettle-cells  for  stinging  and  par- 
alyzing its  prey.  During  the  breeding  season  we  find  on  the 
outside  of  the  animal  a  little  swelling,  a  reproductive  organ 
producing  eggs  or  spermatozoa. 

The  fundamental  structural  characteristics  of  hydra,  and 
of  all  coelenterates,  are  a  body  composed  of  two  layers  of 
cells,  ectoderm  and  entoderm,  surrounding  a  primordial  di- 
gestive cavity,  the  archenteron,  which  in  jelly-fishes  sends  out 


"The  coming  of  life  u 

tubes  or  branches  to  carry  the  more  or  less  dissolved  nutri- 
ment to  all  parts  of  the  body.  Respiration  and  excretion  are 
maintained  through  the  exposed  surfaces  of  the  cell-layers. 

The  protozoa  showed  us  what  could  be  accomplished  by  the 
single  cell.  Then  cell-colonies  appeared;  and  in  volvox  cells 
set  apart  purely  for  reproduction,  the  first  need  and  function 
is  to  have  cells  devoted  entirely  and  solely  to  its  performance. 
It  insured  the  survival  of  the  species,  as  digestion  maintained 
the  survival  of  the  individual.  These  are  the  two  absolutely 
essential  functions  and  therefore  the  first  to  be  provided  with 
special  organs.  The  ccelenterates  show  us  a  stage  where  these 
two  organs  have  attained  their  simplest  and  most  primitive 
forms  and  structure.  We  might  say  that  the  plant  almost  at- 
tained but  never  outgrew  this  stage.  There  is  a  good  sug- 
gestion in  the  name  given  by  the  older  naturalists  to  this 
stage  of  animal  life,  zoophytes  or  plant-animals. 

These  are  not  the  only  contributions  which  the  ccelenterates 
made  to  the  building  of  the  body  of  higher  animals.  They 
developed  quite  a  variety  of  tissues,  groups  of  cells  whose 
form  and  structure  are  adapted  to  the  performance  of  a  special 
function,  but  these  cell-groups  are  not  yet  arranged  and  united 
in  an  organ  having  a  special  shape.  An  organ  usually  consists 
of  several  tissues;  so  a  coat,  corresponding  to  an  organ,  is 
made  of  several  materials,  cloth,  thread,  etc.,  arranged  in 
a  shape  fitted  to  the  wearer. 

In  the  ccelenterates  we  find  muscular  and  nervous  tissues, 
generally  in  a  rudimentary  form.  It  begins  to  look  as  if  these 
might  some  day  take  shape  in  exceedingly  interesting  organs. 
We  find  sensory  cells  each  with  its  fine  hair  responding  to 
delicate  vibrations  in  the  water  or  exposing  a  very  large  sur- 
face to  chemical  stimuli  of  various  kinds.  They  are  the 
promise  of  organs  of  hearing,  smell,  and  taste.  Little  patches 
of  pigment  are  sensitive  to  light  and  feel  it,  in  a  crude  way, 
the  direction  of  its  source.  They  continually  stimulate  the 
cells  of  the  growing  and  developing  nervous  tissue.  Even  in 
hydra  this  has  formed  a  plexus  beneath  the  skin,  a  sort  of 


12  "fHE  COMING  OF  MAN 

cobweb  of  cells  and  fibers  enveloping  the  body.  This  is  a 
well-formed  and  slightly  organized  and  molded  tissue,  we  might 
almost  call  it  an-  organ. 

We  may  safely  say  that  the  protozoa  have  developed  cells, 
the  units  of  structure  whose  combination  made  possible  the 
rise  of  higher  forms.  The  ccelenterates  have  developed  these 
cells  farther,  have  differentiated  them  by  division  of  labor; 
have  builded  the  two  absolutely  essential  organs,  and  have 
furnished  some  most  important  tissues  whose  grouping,  com- 
bination, arrangement  and  shaping  will  make  the  efficient  or- 
gans of  higher  types. 

Here  again  as  in  bacteria  and  protozoa  we  find  a  small 
amount  of  realization  and  attainment,  and  a  great  bundle  of 
vast  but  vague  possibilities;  their  vagueness  is  a  symptom  of 
the  far  higher  new  achievements  which  they  were  to  attain. 
They  paved  the  way  to  greater  and  swifter,  or  at  least  less 
wearisomely  slow,  advance.  Or  one  might  say  that  they  laid 
deep  and  solid  foundations,  and  gathered  an  abundance  of 
material,  so  that  their  descendants  might  erect  a  fortress- 
palace  of  strength  and  beauty.  Despise  not  the  day  of  small 
things,  greater  things  will  come  in  time;  and  our  wealth  of 
time  is  inexhaustible. 

Worms.  A  wise  old  German  professor  used  to  say  with 
whimsical  exaggeration:  '^  Study  worms.  If  you  know  them 
thoroughly,  you  will  understand  the  whole  animal  kingdom. 
If  you  do  not  study  them  carefully,  you  will  never  know  any- 
thing about  zoology."  He  was  right.  In  worms  the  possi- 
bilities of  lower  animal  life  begin  to  emerge  from  vagueness,  to 
unfold  and  take  form.  We  used  to  say:  ''  All  things  are 
possible  with  God  and  in  Austria";  we  might  add  ''and  among 
worms."  Still  they  belong  to  the  great  apostolic  succession 
of  layers  of  foundations.  Most  of  their  forms  are  buried 
beyond  hope  of  recovery. 

They  do  not  form  a  well-marked  type,  kingdom  or  group; 
they  are  an  assemblage  of  relics  of  a  lost  past.  The  study 
of  the  group  is  like  looking  into  our  grandmother's  china  closet 


"THE  COMING  OF  LIFE  13 

or  exploring  the  attic  of  an  old  house.  We  see  only  samples 
or  fragments  of  departed  greatness,  of  which  most  has  long 
since  been  destroyed.  Our  systematic  zoologists  left  among 
worms  all  forms  for  which  they  could  find  no  place  elsewhere. 
These  relics  and  nondescripts  became  isolated  through  the 
extinction  of  long  series  of  connecting  links.  Many  have 
strayed  far  and  show  few  traces  of  their  original  home  and 
ancestry.  Others  have  been  deformed  by  parasitism,  the  last 
refuge  of  weak  and  defeated  animals. 

But  there  is  a  deeper  reason  for  their  vast  range  of  varia- 
tion and  adaptation.  Give  to  a  number  of  isolated  savages 
who  have  never  seen  a  hut  all  the  materials  for  a  house;  and 
let  every  man  build  uncontrolled,  as  he  will.  Every  one  builds 
busily.  The  results  are  marvellous  in  their  variety  and  ec- 
centricity. Most  of  the  buildings  fall  almost  immediately  in 
hopeless  ruin.  A  few  erect  rudiments  of  a  decent  shelter. 
Or  you  may  compare  the  period  when  the  worms  formed  the 
vanguard  and  pioneers  of  animal  development  to  the  period 
of  the  Judges  in  Hebrew  history:  when  "  there  was  no  king 
in  Israel,  but  every  man  did  that  which  was  right  in  his  own 
eyes." 

The  worms  had  inherited  two  layers  of  cells  and  two  organs 
and  a  sacklike  body.  The  wall  of  this  body  corresponded 
practically  to  a  bit  of  skin  covering  a  piece  of  the  lining  of 
the  intestine.  All  structures  between  these  two  layers  of  our 
body  were  yet  to  come.  They  had  the  tissues  out  of  which 
the  other  organs  were  to  be  builded.  Their  problem  and  task 
was  to  frame  the  other  organs,  and  then  combine  them  in  one 
tough,  strong  mobile  body  adapted  to  all  the  conditions  of 
life.  In  this  experiment  there  were  no  hereditary  achieve- 
ments to  guide  them.  The  world  of  life  must  have  been  a 
marvellous  sight  during  the  era  of  the  earliest  worms.  Most 
of  the  earliest  experiments  must  have  failed  and  disappeared 
quickly. 

Traces  of  an  early  stage  of  vermian  development  have 
persisted  in  the  flat  worms  or  platyhelminthes,  especially  in 
the   turbellaria,   small   worms  oval   or  elliptical   in  outline; 


14  "fHE  COMING  OF  MAN 

markedly  depressed,  that  is  flattened  in  a  dorso-ventral  direc- 
tion. We  might,  perhaps,  venture  to  imagine  that  some  very 
primitive  coelenterate  ancestor,  akin  to  a  jelly-iish  (or  a 
ctenophore)  swam  or  crawled  at  the  sea-bottom  and  moved  by 
the  musclar  tissue,  orginally  fibers  growing  out  of  and  be- 
tween the  cells  of  the  two  layers  of  the  body.  This  muscular 
tissue  increased  and  formed  a  thick  mass  and  in  time  layers 
whose  fibers  run  in  all  directions  through  the  body.  These 
muscles  serve  two  main  and  distinct  purposes.  The  inner 
layers  are  attached  to  and  control  the  digestive  sack.  The 
outer  layers  are  used  for  the  locomotion  of  the  body.  These 
two  sets'  of  layers  are  used  independently  and  become  more 
and  more  distinct.  The  space  between  the  two  is  occupied 
by  a  spongy  mass  of  parenchym,  perhaps  orginally  musclar, 
perhaps  connectile. 

In  this  spongy  mass  the  tubular  reproductive  organs  spread 
and  branch.  Here  they  are  safely  protected.  In  our  modern 
flat  worms  they  are  exceedingly  highly  developed  and  very 
complex;  more  so  than  in  any  later  or  higher  animal.  The 
thickened  skin  or  integument  makes  more  and  more  difficult 
the  discharge  c^f  the  steadily  increasing  nitrogenous  waste 
products  of  cjombustion  in  the  muscles  and  elsewhere.  Hence 
we  find  two  tubes,  often  with*  many  branches,  serving  as  ex- 
cretory organs.  There  is  as  yet  no  circulatory  system,  for 
the  fluid  in  the  spongy  mass  of  parenchym  allows  of  easy 
diffusion  of  nutriment  and  oxygen  to  all  parts  of  the  body 
and  oi  waste  products  from  them  to  the  excretory  tubes,  es- 
pecially in  a  small  animal.  The  exchange  of  carbon-dioxide 
for  oxygen  can  still  take  place  through  the  skin;  there  are 
no  special  gills. 

The  mouth  is  sometimes  in  the  middle  of  the  under  surface 
of  the  body,  sometimes  near  the  front  end.  Over  the  mouth 
or  oesophagus  is  a  nerve-center  or  ganglion  and  from  this, 
chords  containing  cells  and  fibers  extend  backward.  The 
sense-organs  consist  of  sensory  hairs  distributed  over  the  body 
and  clustered  in  sacklike  depressions,  otolith  vesicles.  We  find 
pigment  eyes,  of  various  stages  of  development  in  different 


fHE  COMING  OF  LIFE  15 

species,  distributed  around  the  front  margin  of  the  body  or 
limited  to  the  front  end.  The  central  position  of  the  mouth 
and  the  distribution  of  the  eyes,  as  well  as  the  shape  of  the 
body,  in  certain  forms  seems  to  point  backward  toward  some 
sort  of  radiate  ancestor,  though  the  general  structure  is  bi- 
lateral, like  that  of  our  own  bodies.  But  these  insignificant 
worms  seem  to  represent  a  stage  where  important  structural 
changes  and  progress  were  taking  place. 

We  have  only  glanced  at  flat  worms  as  representing  in  some 
respects  a  very  primitive  vermian  stage.  We  must  neglect  all 
the  intermediate  stages  between  them  and  the  highest  worms, 
as  well  as  the  large  number  of  divergent  and  aberrant  forms. 
We  will  not  even  attempt  to  condense  into  a  few  pages  of 
brief,  incomplete  and  inadequate  outline  the  history  of  the 
most  important  changes  in  the  building  of  the  animal  body, 
whose  accomplishment  must  have  required  millions  of  years. 
Our  sketch  reduces  itself  to  a  couple  of  glimpses,  not  at  all  to  a 
moving  picture,  of  animal  evolution. 

We  pass  at  a  leap  to  the  very  highest  worms,  the  annelids, 
of  which  the  earth  worm  is  a  fair  example,  though  the  char- 
acteristics of  the  group  are  brought  out  far  more  clearly  and 
adequately  in  the  "  clam-worms  "  of  the  marine  mud-flats. 
Here  we  shall  find  the  somewhat  feeble  and  crude  attempts  of 
the  flat  worms  realized  in  a  definite  practical  and  efficient 
form  and  structure. 

The  body  of  the  annelid  is  segmented,  composed  of  a  longi- 
tudinal series  of  rings  allowing  great  flexibility  and  freedom 
of  locomotion.  Almost  every  ring  has  a  pair  of  lateral,  fin- 
like projections  which  enable  the  animal  to  swim  or  creep 
rapidly.  Their  possibilities  will  unfold  in  the  appendages  of 
insects. 

The  body  is  composed  of  two  parallel  concentric  tubes,  one 
within  the  other.  The  smaller  tube,  the  intestine,  opens  at 
the  front  and  hind  ends  of  the  body  by  becoming  continuous 
with  the  outer  tube.  The  opening  in  front  is  the  mouth,  that 
at  the  rear  the  anal  opening.  We  will  call  the  outer  tube  the 
body  wall.     It  is  composed  of  the  skin  and  two  layers  of 


i6  I' HE  COMING  OF  MAN 

muscles;  the  fibers  of  one  running  longitudinally,  those  of  the 
other  transversely.  These  muscles  can  lengthen,  shorten  or 
bend  the  body  as  it  writhes  through  the  water.  They  also  give 
complete  protection  to  the  delicate  internal  organs.  The  lin- 
ing of  the  digestive  tube  secretes  the  digestive  fluids  and  ab- 
sorbs the  digested  food.  As  the  food  passes  through  it  in  a 
more  or  less  continual  stream  its  different  parts  have  begun 
to  differentiate  to  suit  the  different  stages  of  digestion.  The 
tube  is  far  more  efficient  than  the  mere  sack.  Around  this 
tube  also  are  layers  of  muscular  fibers. 

The  space  between  the  two  tubes  is  the  perivisceral  cav- 
ity or  coelom  where  delicate  vital  organs  can  be  packed  away. 
Here  we  find  comparatively  simple  reproductive  organs. 
Many  eggs  are  still  produced  but  this  is  not  the  whole  business 
of  life  as  in  flat  worms.  We  find  a  pair  of  excretory  tubules 
in  each  segment  to  remove  the  steadily  increasing  nitrogenous 
waste.  The  earth  worm  still  breathes  through  the  outer 
surface;  the  more  active  clam-worm  has  little  feathery 
or  tubular  gills  on  its  fins.  We  find  a  complete  system 
of  blood-vessels  to  insure  delivery  of  nutriment  and 
oxygen  to  all  p^rts  of  the  body  and  removal  of  waste.  The 
perivisceral  cavity  is  filled  with  a  colorless  fluid,  perhaps 
much  like  our  lymph.  All  the  essentials  of  the  body  of  a  very 
powerful  and  efficient  animal  have  here  been  realized  to  a 
large  extent.  The  general  plan  of  structure  and  arrangement 
will  be  retained  in  higher  forms  though  with  much  improve- 
ment in  details. 

A  quite  complex  nervous  system  has  been  already  attained. 
In  every  ring  or  segment  of  the  body  we  find  a  nerve  center 
or  ganglion  controlling  the  muscles  of  that  segment.  These 
are  connected  in  a  chain  along  the  ventral  surface  sending 
forward  on  each  side  of  the  oesophagus  bundles  of  fibers,  com- 
missures, to  an  evidently  superior  or  supreme  center  in  the 
first  segment.  The  long  cylindrical  body  is  thus  unified  and 
brought  under  one  control.  This  chief  supra-cesophageal 
ganglion  innervates  the  principal  sense-organs.  The  mouth 
has  the  sense  of  taste,  and  here  or  hard  by  is  located  the 


fHE  COMING  OF  LIFE  17 

sense  of  smell;  the  chief  means  of  recognition  of  food. 
Tentacles  form  exquisite  organs  of  touch  and  very  possibly 
of  other  senses.  The  cells  with  fine  hairs,  which  we  found 
in  ccelenterates  are  still  abundant,  and  may  be  accessible  to 
a  variety  of  stimuli.  Little  sacks  lined  with  similar  hairs, 
otolith-vesicles,  are  probably  organs  of  feeling  delicate  vibra- 
tions in  the  water,  and  giving  warning  of  the  nearness  of  foe 
or  food.     They  are  on  the  way  to  become  organs  of  hearing. 

We  have  found  the  eye  as  a  pigment  speck  in  flat  worms 
and  probably  in  primitive  ccelenterates.  In  some  of  the  flat 
worms  such  pigment  specks  have  sunk  below  the  surface 
and  light  is  allowed  to  enter  only  along  a  single  line  of  direc- 
tion. The  skin  covering  the  aperture  is  transparent  and  if  it 
thickens  gradually  into  the  form  of  a  lens,  and  the  pigmented 
surface  becomes  more  delicately  and  fully  innervated,  we  have 
an  organ  which  is  no  longer  merely  photoscopic,  light  per- 
ceiving, but  also  eidoscopic,  forming  images  of  external  ob- 
jects. At  least  one  annelid,  alciope,  has  attained  such  a  truly 
visual  eidoscopic  eye  giving  an  image  of  objects  within  a  very 
narrow  range  of  vision. 

We  cannot  overestimate  the  importance  of  the  development 
of  a  visual  eye.  It  may  be  crude  and  near-sighted,  but  "  among 
the  blind,  the  one-eyed  man  is  king."  Among  higher  types 
of  animals  an  eye  with  some  means  of  forming  an  image  is 
universal.  Eyes,  otolith  vesicles  or  ears,  tentacles  and  other 
sense  organs  are  all  situated  at  the  front  end  of  a  vigorous 
cylindrical  animal  writhing  its  way  through  the  water.  Here 
the  watch  and  lookout  for  food  and  danger  must  be  maintained. 
All  these  sense-organs  are  innervated  from  the  supra-oesoph- 
ageal  ganglion  which  is  continually  pelted  with  stimuli  from 
all  sides  and  sources.  It  is  growing  fast  but  is  hardly  suf- 
ficient for  the  work  and  demands  thrown  upon  it.  The  an- 
nelid can  hardly  be  said  to  possess  a  true  head  and  brain,  but 
if  it  keeps  its  front  end  foremost  and  does  not  drift  it  will 
surely  develop  one.  To  adopt  the  expression  of  the  stock- 
market  it  is  very  "  long  in  futures." 

These  annelids,  and  probably  others  somewhat  like  them, 


i8  tHE  COMING  OF  MAN 

revolutionized  the  animal  kingdom  and  marked  out  a  far- 
stretching  line  of  advance.  They  alone  were  not  the  an- 
cestors of  all  higher  forms.  Others  are  equally  interesting 
and  progressive,  one  is  tempted  to  say  aspiring.  Sagitta,  the 
"  arrow-worm,"  could  tell  an  equally  fascinating  story.  Pos- 
sibly or  probably  worms  superior  to  both  these  have  disap- 
peared and  left  in  the  rocks  no  trace  of  their  soft  bodies.  But 
several  forms  of  these  highest  worms  were  tending  and  strug- 
gling and  writhing  in  a  very  interesting  direction. 

Let  us  choose  any  one  of  these  highest  worms  which  has 
the  muscular  locomotive  body  with  a  front  end  possessing 
crude  visual  eyes  and  good  ganglion.  Let  us  imagine  him  as 
having  a  pharynx  or  muscular  lining  of  the  mouth  which  he 
can  protrude,  and  that  this  pharynx  is  armed  with  a  couple  or 
more  of  sharp,  pointed,  claw-like  horny  teeth.  Let  us  turn 
such  forms,  and  there  are  at  least  some  of  them  still  surviv- 
ing, loose  in  an  ocean  swarming  with  less  active  unarmed  lower 
worms  and  coelenterates.  They  will  live  like  kings  and  ovm 
the  world.  No  unarmed  form  can  stand  before  them.  The 
world  of  coelenterates  and  flat  worms  was  one  of  comparative 
peace.  Two  jelly-fishes  cannot  fight  if  they  would;  two  an- 
nelids might,  and  their  descendants  will.  The  struggle  of 
brute  with  brute  for  supremacy  has  begun  or  is  near  at  hand. 
Only  the  most  vigorous,  tough,  athletic,  vigilant  and  wary 
can  hope  for  success.  The  worms  are  entering  or  approach- 
ing this  arena  and  the  gladiatorial  shows  will  continue  for 
millions  of  years.  Something  magnificent  must  surely  come 
of  it.  Even  if  we  are  descended  from  worms,  they  were 
glorious  worms! 


II 

THE  COMING  OF  A  BACKBONE 

PEERING  backward  into  the  dawn  of  geological  history, 
where  even  the  palaeontologist  can  help  us  but  little, 
we  see  dimly  a  vast  ocean  peopled  with  a  swarm  of 
worms  and  coelenterates,  as  well  as  all  sorts  of  still  lower 
life.  The  age  of  pacifists,  of  universal  flabbiness  and  peace,  is 
passing  fast.  It  was  high  time  to  begin  the  development  of 
some  sort  of  skeleton.  Three  different  types  of  skeleton  were 
possible.  Different  descendants  of  worms  experimented  on 
these  three  lines  and  thus  became  ancestors  of  the  highest 
groups  of  animals:  vertebrates,  arthropods  and  mollusks. 
These  three  ancestral,  pioneer  worms  parted  company  ages 
ago,  and  all  unconsciously  went  out  into  the  world  to  seek 
their  fortunes.  The  vertebrate  ancestor  developed  an  internal 
locomotive  skeleton  which  was  to  culminate  in  a  backbone. 
The  arthropods  are  represented  by  insects,  spiders  and  crabs. 
Their  ancestor  secreted  an  external  horny  skeleton,  chiefly 
for  locomotion,  partly  for  protection. 

The  primitive  molluscan  ancestor  was  apparently  an  un- 
segmented  worm  crawling  slowly  and  lazily  over  the  bottom 
where  small  food  was  abundant.  Here,  where  life  teems, 
some  sort  of  protective  skeleton  seems  almost  the  rule.  There 
are  shelled  protozoa,  coral-animals  and  sessile  well  protected 
worms.  The  skin  takes  easily  and  naturally  to  producing 
such  a  skeleton,  and  very  likely  it  developed  rapidly.  He 
crawled  slowly  on  the  bottom,  and  his  mode  of  life  gradually 
molded  his  whole  structure. 

We  will  first  glance  at  the  clam,  the  extreme  logical  con- 
clusion and  in  a  way  the  consummate  flower  of  molluscan 

19 


20  tHE  COMING  OF  MAN 

development.  We  will  not  weary  ourselves  with  dry  details 
of  anatomical  structure;  we  seek  chiefly  the  tendency  and 
results  of  his  experiment  and  line  of  advance,  his  gains  and 
losses.  The  ancestral  clam  developed  a  shell  composed  of 
two  valves  which  extended  downward  and  completely  cov- 
ered the  sides  of  the  body.  It  burrowed  in  the  mud  or  sand 
until  well  out  of  reach  of  any  large  foes  —  if  any  such  should 
ever  arise  —  where  he  was  safe  even  from  nibbling  worms 
and  boring  irritating  animalcules.  Against  all  forms  of  pain 
and  discomfort  he  offers  an  even  more  impregnable  defence. 
He  has  little  muscle,  except  enough  to  close  the  shell,  less 
nerves,  and  his  supra-cesophageal  ganglion  is  minute.  Most 
irritations  are  unnoticed;  severe  or  sharp  pain  is  probably 
impossible. 

Some  morbid  soul  may  think  that  a  being  to  whom  pain  is 
impossible  cannot  know  happiness  or  pleasure.  The  clam 
distinguishes  his  food,  and  his  senses  are  continually  tickled 
by  a  stream  of  appetizing  particles  floating  down  his  throat. 
Fear  and  worry  are  certainly  unknown  to  him.  If  unalloyed 
comfort  is  the  goal  of  evolution,  the  process  should  have  ended 
with  the  clam. 

The  criterion  of  fitness,  according  to  Mr.  Darwin's  theory, 
is  survival  due  to  conformity  to  environment.  This  the  bi- 
valve mollusks  have  attained,  and  without  any  great  effort  or 
struggle.  They  were  already  ancient  forms  when  the  first 
mammals  appeared  some  millions  of  years  ago.  They  have 
lasted  well.  They  have  a  large  surplus  income  to  devote  to 
reproduction.  The  eggs  are  small  because  the  young  can  be 
born  in  a  very  simple  stage  and  still  shift  for  themselves. 
The  infantile  danger  period  is  short.  They  have  been  fruit- 
ful and  multiplied. 

Many  animals  have  found  a  temporary  environment  of 
abundance  and  comparative  peace,  to  which  they  have  closely 
conformed,  and  have  therefore  prospered.  But  when  condi- 
tions changed,  they  were  the  first  to  suffer  and  disappeared. 
The  clam  has  accommodated  itself  to  life  in  a  strip  of  shore 
where  sea  and  land  meet.    As  long  as  sea  and  land  endure 


"THE  COMING  OF  A  BACKBONE  21 

they  will  meet  in  shores.  He  has  apparently  conformed  to 
a  vast,  favorable,  unchanging,  everlasting  environment. 

Our  sketch  of  the  clam  has  given  us  but  a  partial  and  one- 
sided view  of  molluscan  history.  The  clam  represents  only 
one  of  three  great  subdivisions  or  classes  of  the  whole  sub- 
kingdom.  The  second  class  of  mollusks,  the  gasteropods,  in- 
cludes the  recent  forms  having  a  single  spiral  or  conical  shell, 
or  having  the  foot  in  the  form  of  a  creeping  disk.  They  gen- 
erally crawl  on  the  sea-bottom.  They  have  spread  into 
brackish  and  even  into  fresh  water.  Some  of  them  have  used 
the  sack  or  chamber  which  contained  the  gills  as  a  sort  of  lung, 
have  breathed  air  and  emerged  on  land.  Our  snails  are 
descended  from  such  forms.  Some  have  taken  possession  of 
cracks  and  fissures  in  the  rocks,  or  have  worked  their  way 
deep  into  the  mass  of  fragments  under  limestone  cliffs. 
Slugs  are  snails  which  have  given  up  the  cumbrous  shell  as 
no  longer  needed  for  protection. 

All  these  forms  are  most  at  home  in  damp  or  wet  localities. 
They  still  betray  their  origin  from  aquatic  ancestors.  It 
need  not  surprise  us  that  some  of  the  air-breathing  mollusks 
returned  to  the  water  again,  and  became  pond-snails. 

Some  of  the  marine  gasteropods  have  lost  the  shell,  so  the 
sea-slugs,  nudibranchs.  But  even  among  the  more  typical 
gasteropods  some  have  returned  from  the  crawling  life  of 
primitive  mollusks  to  the  swimming  habit  of  still  more  prim- 
itive ancestors.  The  most  noteworthy  of  these  are  the  ptero- 
pods.  They  have  either  greatly  lightened  or  completely  lost 
the  shell,  have  changed  the  broad  creeping  disk  into  a  pair  of 
winglike  fins  by  means  of  which  some  are  said  to  dart  through 
the  water  much  as  butterflies  glide  through  the  air.  One 
group  of  these  pteropods  has  retained  a  light  shell.  Its  mem- 
bers feed  on  the  small  plants  and  animals  which  swarm  in  the 
ocean.  They  also  attained  an  exceedingly  wide  and  stable  en- 
vironment and  have  held  their  place  since  the  beginning  of 
palaeozoic  time. 

The  second  division  has  given  up  the  shell,  and  its  mem- 
bers lead  a  carniverous  hawklike  life  feeding  on  their  shelled 


22  TH£  COMING  OF  MAN 

relations.  Pteropods  swarm  in  the  northern  parts  of  the  ocean, 
and  form  quite  a  large  part  of  the  food  of  whales  as  well  as 
of  fish.  Thus  the  clams  possess  an  immense  territory  of  shore 
and  the  pteropods  the  almost  boundless  surface  of  tlie  colder 
oceans,  an  unequalled  distribution  which  they  hold  almost 
without  competitors. 

Both  clam  and  pteropod  live  on  microscopic  food,  which  is 
constant  in  supply  and  easily  obtained.  They  hold  a  some- 
what humble  and  unostentatious,  but  most  important  place  in 
Nature's  vast  household,  corresponding  in  a  way  to  the  in- 
sects and  smaller  vertebrates  on  land. 

It  was  left  to  the  cephalopods,  the  third  great  class  of  mol- 
lusks,  to  attempt  a  more  ambitious  role.  They  also  forsook 
the  crawling  life  of  their  more  primitive  ancestors  for  some 
reason  unknown  to  us.  Perhaps  they  gained  larger  and  bet- 
ter food  in  this  way;  possibly  in  the  severe  competition  on  the 
bottom  they  were  forced  to  the  change  of  habit  by  stronger 
and  better  adapted  opponents. 

They  invented  or  stumbled  upon  a  very  ingenious  mode  of 
locomotion  by  taking  water  into  the  so-called  mantle-cavity 
and  then  spurting  it  out  between  the  lobes  of  the  foot  in  a 
powerful  jet.  Modern  squids  and  cuttlefish  have  united  these 
lobes  in  a  tube,  the  siphon.  By  this  peculiar  method  they 
move  with  marvellous  rapidity,  darting  through  the  water  like 
the  swiftest  fishes.  At  the  front  end  of  the  body  around  the 
mouth  they  have  developed  a  circle  of  long  arms  bearing  rows 
of  suckers  so  that  they  can  grasp  and  hold  firmly  anything 
which  comes  within  their  reach.  Many  modern  forms  have 
a  beak  like  that  of  a  parrot  with  which  they  can  bite  directly 
through  the  body  of  an  ordinary  fish. 

The  swift  locomotion  developed  the  muscular  and  nervous 
systems  to  an  extent  unknown  among  other  mollusks.  They 
have  large  eyes  and  organs  like  ears,  and  a  well  developed 
and  distinct  head.  Their  brain  is  large  and  complex  and  sur- 
rounded by  a  sort  of  cranium.  Their  shells  grew  continually 
lighter.  In  the  squid  the  external  protective  armor  has  been 
completely  cast  off.     Theirs  is  no  defensive  campaign.     Only 


THE  COMING  OF  A  BACKBONE  23 

rudiments  of  the  old  skeleton  remain  as  a  sort  of  a  quill  which 
has  sunk  beneath  the  skin  and  gives  to  the  body  some  of 
the  support  furnished  by  our  backbone.  It  was  a  bold  and 
difficult  experiment  and  was  for  a  time  marvellously  suc- 
cessful. The  cephalopods  were  the  rulers  or  vikings  of  the 
early  palaeozoic  seas.  No  form  could  begin  to  compete  with 
them  in  size  and  strength.     They  ruled  supreme. 

The  vertebrates  came  upon  the  scene.  Sharks  and  ganoids 
were  equally  swift  and  had  far  more  efficient  jaws.  The 
cephalopods  held  their  place  with  marvellous  pertinacity. 
Far  down  in  Mesozoic  times  we  find  the  shells  of  the  ammon- 
ites very  abundant.  Possibly  the  extinction  of  this  great 
group  was  due  to  climatic  changes  rather  than  to  competition. 
Certainly  the  ammonites  disappeared.  Nautilus  is  their  last 
surviving  near  relation.  The  squids  and  octopi  alone  remain 
of  a  host  of  related  ancient  groups.  It  is  a  hopelessly  def-eated 
form,  a  sad  relic  of  decayed  power  and  greatness. 

Most  of  our  recent  squids  are  of  only  moderate  size.  But 
the  body  of  architeuthis,  the  giant-squid,  is  more  than  eight 
feet  long;  while  the  arms  are  over  thirty  feet  in  length  and  as 
thick  as  a  man's  thigh;  the  suckers  are  as  large  as  coffee-cups. 
They  have  been  reported  from  Labrador  and  Newfoundland, 
Iceland,  Japan,  and  are  apparently  deep-water  forms  of  al- 
most universal  distribution. 

A  struggle  in  which  squids  have  been  worsted  and  devoured 
by  fish  or  even  by  sperm-whales  is  a  very  homely  or  vulgar 
sort  of  tragedy.  But  let  us  look  a  little  closer.  The  ancestor 
of  the  squid  forsook  or  refused  the  crawling  life  and  became 
free-swimming.  This  is  a  step  which  through  the  development 
of  muscles,  nerves,  sense-organs  and  brain  leads  to  progress. 
Even  sense-organs  and  brain  are  stimulated  and  fostered  by 
muscular  locomotion.  The  goal  of  early  evolutionary  progress 
seems  to  be  first  brute  strength  and  toughness,  then  quick- 
ness and  agility  of  motion  and  flexibility  of  body.  We  shall 
see  that  the  vertebrate  arose  from  insignificant  beginnings 
mainly  because  of  its  constant  exercise  of  its  muscles.  The 
squid  played  the  great  game  according  to  its  best  rules,  just 


24  "fHE  COMING  OF  MAN 

so  far  as  was  possible  to  him.  He  failed  through  no  fault  of 
his  own.  He  was  doomed  to  failure  by  his  earliest  molluscan 
ancestors.  He  could  rid  himself  of  his  shell,  but  the  short, 
clumsy  unsegmented  body  was  fastened  indelibly  upon  him 
by  heredity.  From  this  he  could  never  escape.  This  is  the 
tragic  chapter  of  molluscan  history.  It  seems  to  me  worthy 
of  that  name. 

Arthropoda.  The  external  skeleton  of  the  arthropods  has 
the  double  advantage  that  it  can  be  used  either  for  protection 
or  locomotion.  In  barnacles  it  is  as  completely  protective  as 
in  the  clam;  in  most  crabs,  and  in  many  beetles,  it  serves  very 
largely  the  same  purpose;  in  spiders  and  many  insects,  like 
flies  and  wasps,  it  is  almost  purely  locomotive.  The  value  of 
so  wide  a  range  of  adaptability  is  evident. 

The  arthropods  form  a  series  extending  and  completing  the 
annelid  line  of  development.  The  body  consists  of  the  two 
concentric  tubes,  the  intestine  and.  body  wall,  with  a  peri- 
visceral cavity  between  them;  the  nervous  system  has  the 
same  type,  a  ganglion  in  every  ring  of  the  well  segmented 
body.  Both  have  on  some  or  most  of  the  segments  of  the 
body  a  pair  of  appendages;  fins  in  annelid,  jointed  legs  or 
their  modifications  in  the  arthropod.  The  insects  have  added 
^o  pairs  of  wings  in  connection  with  their  terrestrial  or 

^    g^rial  life. 

2  "o  The  insects  have  grouped  the  segments  of  the  annelids  in 

SSliree   body-regions:    head,    thorax   and   abdomen,   and  have 
•^folded  each  region  for  a  special  function  or  purpose.     The 
c§bdomen  is  usually  composed  of  from  nine  to  eleven  segments, 
P^d  is  the  chief  seat  of  digestion,  excretion,  circulation,  respi- 
i;^tion  and  reproduction,  the  organs  of  vegetative  life.     To  the 
^iree  segments  of  the  thorax,  two  pairs  of  wings  and  three 
pairs  of  legs  are  attached.     These  segments  are  very  closely 
united,  and  in  bees  and  flies  are  fused  in  one  globular  mass. 
The  head  consists  of  six,  or  possibly  more,  completely  fused 
segments.     The  appendages  of  three  of  these  behind  the  mouth 
have  been  changed  into  as  many  pairs  of  jaws,  or  still  further 


"THE  COMING  OF  A  BACKBONE  25 

modified  to  form  piercing  or  sucking  mouth-parts.  Three 
preoral  segments  carry  the  large  facetted  eyes,  and  a  pair  of 
antennae;  organs  of  feeling,  often  also  of  smell  and  hearing. 
Originally  every  segment  had  its  nerve-center  or  ganglion.  In 
insects  the  ganglia  of  the  three  preoral  segments  of  the  head 
are  fused  in  what  we  must  call  a  brain  sending  its  nerves  to 
antennae  and  to  genuine  visual  eyes.  The  antennae  are  very 
sensitive  organs;  the  eyes  are  often  very  complex  giving  clear 
and  sharp  vision  of  objects  at  some  distance.  The  insect  is 
well  aware  of  what  is  godng  on  about  it. 

Insects  evidently  live  on  a  distinctly  higher  plane  of  life 
than  any  of  the  forms  which  we  have  previously  studied. 
Coelenterates  are  stationary  or  scarcely  more  than  floating 
and  drifting  animals,  and  we  can  hardly  speak  of  muscular 
and  nervous  systems.  Lower  worms  crawled  slowly  but  de- 
veloped steadily  muscle  and  nerve.  Insects  devote  only  about 
half  oi  their  body  to  the  vegetative  organs.  The  thorax  is 
purely  locomotive,  and  the  front  half  of  the  head  entirely 
sensory  and  nervous.  This  is  progress  which  almost  amounts 
to  a  revolution.  Hence  in  all  insects  we  find  very  highly  de- 
veloped instincts,  and  some  intelligence  in  bees  and  wasps, 
which  have  also  developed  a  high  grade  of  social  life.  In- 
sects are  a  very  promising  group;  we  naturally  expect  great 
things  of  them. 

They  were  Nature's  precocious  children,  made  rapid  prog- 
ress, and  had  advanced  far  in  early  palaeozoic  time.  Their 
development  culminated  with  the  appearance  of  bees  and 
wasps  in  Mesozoic  or  early  Cenozoic  time.  Since  that  time 
their  progress  seems  to  have  ceased.  This  is  a  strange  fact, 
which  demands  careful  attention. 

The  external  locomotive  skeleton  is  admirably  fitted  to  an 
animal  of  small  size.  To  encase  an  animal  of  the  size  of  a 
dog  in  such  firm  armor  would  surely  hinder  locomotion;  it 
would  be  difficult  to  frame  the  joints,  and  the  successive  moults 
required  to  meet  the  growth  of  the  body  would  be  impossible. 
We  have  seen  the  great  advantages  of  small  size;  it  has  also 
its  marked  limitations.     The  small  insect  could  never  hope  to 


26  fHE  COMING  OF  MAN 

compete  directly  with  the  large  and  powerful  vertebrate. 
More  important  still  small  size  seems  to  be  usually  correlated 
with  short  hfe.  The  life  of  the  full-grown  insect  rarely 
exceeds  a  few  months  and  is,  as  a  rule,  much  briefer 
than  this.  The  larger  vertebrates  live  for  several  or  many 
years. 

A  brief  span  of  life  is  not  productive  of  intelligence  born  of 
long,  oft  repeated,  but  varying  emergencies  and  experiences. 
There  is  little  opportunity  for  the  individual  to  learn  thereby. 
In  the  rapidly  recurring  and  succeeding  generations  successful 
habits,  or  mental  peculiarities  quickly  become  fixed,  and  are 
handed  down  practically  unchanged  as  inherited  instincts. 
There  is  little  stimulus  or  opportunity  for  mental  growth  in 
an  animal  whose  whole  experience  is  limited  to  a  few  months 
of  easy  and  enjoyable  summer.  The  whole  subject  of  instinct 
and  intelligence,  their  resemblance  and  differences,  compen- 
sating advantages  and  disadvantages,  especially  their  origin, 
forms  a  field  of  most  fascinating  study,  into  which  we  will  not 
attempt  to  enter. 

We  can  only  glance  at  the  early  individual  development  of 
insects.  Excepting  a  very  few  of  the  most  primitive,  they  all 
attain  their  adult  form  through  a  metamorphosis  most  marked 
and  complete  in  the  highest  and  latest  forms.  The  butterfly 
is  born  a  caterpillar,  the  bee  a  sort  of  grub,  the  fly  a  maggot. 
The  advantage  of  the  metamorphosis  is  evident.  We  have 
seen  that  every  egg  must  contain  enough  nourishment  to  feed 
the  embryo  until  it  reaches  a  stage  where  it  can  shift  for  itself, 
and  the  simpler  the  animal  at  birth,  the  shorter  the  embryonic 
life,  and  the  less  nourishment  required  in  the  egg. 

Out  of  a  given  amount  of  surplus  material  to  be  devoted  to 
reproduction,  a  few  large  eggs  or  many  smaller  ones  can  be 
formed.  It  is  a  great  advantage  to  the  species  that  the  eggs 
should  be  as  numerous  as  possible,  and  that  to  gain  this  advan- 
tage the  young  are  born  in  as  simple  and  incomplete  a  form 
and  as  quickly  as  possible.  Hence  the  butterfly  is  born  in  a 
caterpillar  stage,  and  must  gather,  assimilate  and  store  up 


fHE  COMING  OF  A  BACKBONE  27 

sufficient  nourishment  to  complete  the  growth  and  develop- 
ment from  the  larval  to  the  adult  stage. 

If  the  metamorphosis  or  series  of  changes  from  larva  to 
adult  is  comparatively  easy  it  requires  no  long  resting  stage; 
even  if  great  and  difficult,  it  may  be  distributed  along  the 
successive  moults,  or  all  be  condensed  in  the  cocoon  or  rest- 
ing stage  of  the  so-called  complete  metamorphosis.  This  ex- 
plains the  voracity  and  destructiveness  of  insect  larvae.  It 
does  not  surprise  us  to  find  that  the  most  destructive  insect 
pests  are  usually  the  smallest,  like  the  plant  lice,  for  example. 
Where  limited  locomotion  or  sessile  life  is  added  to  small 
size,  as  in  the  scale-bugs,  the  insect  becomes  a  veritable 
scourge. 

Insects  disappoint  us.  Their  good  qualities  and  powers 
are  many  and  marked;  their  limitations  are  equally  clear  and 
in  time  seem  to  have  put  an  end  to  progress.  The  external 
skeleton  gives  good  returns  for  a  long  time,  but  leads  to 
standstill  in  the  end.  Life  must  and  did  produce  something 
capable  of  surer  and  less  limited  progress. 

The  Vertebrate.     The  internal  locomotive  skeleton. 

The  ancestors  of  vertebrates  or  backboned  animals,  the  prim- 
itive chordata,  neglected  all  the  advantages  of  protective  armor, 
and  placed  the  skeleton  inside  the  body  as  near  its  axis  as  the 
large  vegetative  organs  permitted.  The  primitive  skeleton 
was  a  rod  of  spongy  tissue  which,  for  lack  of  a  better  name, 
we  call  cartilage.  It  is  sheathed  by  a  layer  of  fibrous  con- 
nectile  tissue,  which  in  time  gave  place  to  true  cartilage. 
This  sheath  sends  projections  upward  to  arch  over  the  dorsal 
nerve-cord  and  downward  around  the  great  blood  vessels. 
Sheath  and  arches  furnish  attachment  for  two  heavy  bands  or 
masses  of  muscles  running  lengthwise  on  each  side  of  the  body. 
These  may  at  first  have  produced  a  writhing  motion,  but  later 
they  pulled  the  tail-fin  right  and  left  alternately  and  sculled 
the  body  through  the  water. 

The  head  is  large  with  eyes,  ears  and  nasal  capsules.    The 


28  "        "THE  COMING  OF  MAN 

eyes  have  the  possibility  of  sight  at  long  range.  Smell  and 
hearing  are  keen.  The  first  chordata  seem  to  have  lived 
on  minute  food,  sifting  it  out  of  the  water  with  their  gill-sack. 
Then  jaws  were  developed  armed  with  rows  of  sharp  and 
pointed  teeth.  The  sense-organs  are  innervated  from  a  brain 
containing,  even  in  the  most  primitive  forms,  the  nervous 
material  of  some  five  segments,  later  of  probably  nine  and 
even  more.  Powerful  muscles  and  a  large  brain  characterize 
this  group  from  the  earliest  times.  The  revolution  prophesied 
in  worms  has  been  accomplished.  They  swim  far  and  swiftly, 
continually  meeting  new  experiences  and  dangers  throughout 
the  years  of  a  long  life.  Surely  some  of  their  descendants 
will  become  intelligent. 

Such  changes  take  time  and  can  come  about  only  very 
slowly.  Millions  of  years  must  have  elapsed  before  a  form 
somewhat  like  amphioxus  could  have  changed  even  into  the 
most  ancient  shark.  Cartilage  had  to  be  discovered,  invented, 
hit  upon  and  improved  —  express  it  as  you  will.  It  could  arise 
only  under  strain  in  the  fibers  of  the  dorsal  fin-rays;  it 
gradually  extended  downward  on  the  arches  over  the  nervous 
chord,  thence  into  the  sheath  of  the  notochord.  We  wonder 
that  the  process  was  ever  carried  to  a  successful  issue.  They 
looked  like  anything  but  promising  forms. 

But  replacing  fibrous  tissue  by  cartilage  was  only  the  first 
step.  The  only  bone  in  a  primitive  shark  was  in  the  minute 
scales  or  denticles  of  the  skin.  How  some  ancient  ancestor 
had  succeeded  in  developing  bone,  in  many  respects  the  most 
marvellous  tissue  in  our  bodies,  is  beyond  my  comprehension 
or  imagination.     He  did  it. 

Bone  also  worked  its  way  downward  from  the  surface  along 
the  rays  and  spinal  arches,  as  cartilage  had  preceded  it;  and 
finally  replaced  the  cartilage.  In  time  vertebras  were  shaped 
and  the  animal  had  a  backbone.  We  might  say  that  ver- 
tebrates built  three  skeletons  in  order  to  gain  the  beginnings  of 
a  backbone,  a  marvellous  series  of  changes. 

We  may  glance  at  the  structure  of  a  shark  as  a  very  prim- 
itive form  of  vertebrate  animal.     We  notice  the  long  cylin- 


THE  COMING  OF  A  BACKBONE  29 

drical  body  tapering  to  the  solidly  muscular  tail  with  its  cu- 
rious fin.  All  the  vital  organs  are  well  developed  and  ex- 
ceedingly compact.  We  notice  the  well  marked  head,  the 
strange  position  of  the  mouth,  the  keen  sense-organs,  and 
the  large  brain.  Indeed  the  brain  looks  larger  than  the  needs 
of  a  shark  require. 

We  find  only  two  pairs  of  lateral  appendages,  the  fore  and 
hind  fins  used  mostly  for  steering.  This  is  a  sharp  contrast  to 
the  many  pairs  of  appendages  of  the  arthropods,  every  pair 
admirably  adapted  to  a  special  purpose.  We  will  return  to 
this  fact  later.  We  find  a  skeleton  in  which  the  ancient  noto- 
chord  is  being  crowded  upon  by  the  cartilaginous  sheath. 
This  sheath  may  be  infiltrated  and  stiffened  with  carbonate 
of  lime,  forming  calcified  cartilage,  but  no  true  bone.  The 
skin  feels  like  sand-paper;  it  is  covered  with  minute  pointed 
scales  or  denticles  composed  of  bone  covered  with  a  layer  of 
enamel.  The  scales  covering  the  skin  of  the  jaws  have  en- 
larged greatly  and  become  triangular  teeth,  of  which  there 
are  several  or  many  rows. 

The  dog-fish  is  an  admirably  framed  and  fashioned  animal: 
powerful,  agile,  swift  and  enduring  in  locomotion,  tough  and 
vigorous,  with  keen  sense-organs  and  no  mean  brain.  It 
roams  everywhere;  especially  over  the  sea-bottom,  where  food 
is  most  plentiful  and  the  struggle  fiercest,  and  is  continually 
meeting  new  conditions  and  emergencies.  Its  eggs  are  very 
large,  yet  it  is  extremely  common.  Evidently  even  the  young 
are  well  able  to  care  for  themselves.  No  wonder  that  th§ 
fishermen  hate  and  curse  it,  it  is  the  highest  tribute  to  its 
many  virtues. 

Almost  or  quite  as  old  as  the  sharks  are  the  ganoid  fishes 
represented  by  the  sturgeons,  garpikes  and  a  great  host  of 
fossil  forms.  In  the  structure  of  the  notochord  and  sheath 
they  shov7  us  all  stages  up  to  bony  vertebrae.  They  differ 
from  sharks  in  one  important  respect:  they  have  an  air-blad- 
der, a  sack  connected  with  the  mouth  by  a  tube  through  which 
air  can  be  drawn.  They  have  the  possibility  of  using  the 
air-bladder  as  a  lung,  and  some  of  them  have  realized  and 


30  fHE  COMING  OF  MAN 

utilized  this  to  a  fair  degree.  The  brain  looks  smaller  than 
the  shark's,  but  it  is  well  formed  and  may  be  more  compact 
and  highly  differentiated.  We  shall  see  the  importance  of  the 
ganoids  in  the  next  chapter. 


Ill 

THE  RISE  OF  LAND  LIFE 

EARLIEST  Palaeozoic  time  seems  to  have  been  charac- 
terized by  seas  of  wide  area.  Its  deposits  are  largely 
limestones  laid  down  in  fairly  deep  water.  The  earli- 
est known  foot  print  of  a  terrestrial  vertebrate  is  in  sediment 
belonging  to  the  upper  devonian  period;  the  animal  had  al- 
ready emerged  on  land,  perhaps  during  the  lower  devonian 
period,  when  the  land  began  to  rise,  and  shallow  water,  or 
bays  and  rivers  were  extensive. 

The  weight  of  geological  evidence  seems  to  favor  the  view 
that  both  sharks  and  ganoids  developed  in  fresh  water  out 
of  some  more  primitive  immigrant  ancestor  from  the  sea.^ 
Here  there  is  still  much  uncertainty.  But  we  may  be  fairly 
confident  that  the  ganoid  stock  at  least  was  chiefly  represented 
in  the  rivers  of  the  rising  continents  in  early  devonian  times. 
The  ganoide,  sturgeon,  garpike,  and  others,  show  wide  variety 
of  form  and  structure.  They  differed  greatly  in  the  form 
and  thickness  of  their  scaly  defensive  armor.  I  believe  that 
we  may  safely  imagine  that  the  well  defended  forms  would 
hold  the  channels  of  the  rivers  and  the  lagoons,  while  those 
with  least  defensive  armor  would  be  driven  into  the  shallower 
waters  and  swamps. 

The  climate  of  this  period  seems  to  have  been  semi-arid, 
seasons  of  pouring  rain  and  floods  alternating  with  drought. 
Under  such  circumstances  the  air-bladder  capable  of  inhal- 
ing atmospheric  air  would  have  been  of  great  and  steadily  in- 
creasing use  and  value,  especially  in  the  headwater  marshes, 
where  in  the  hot  summers  the  gases  of  decaying  vegetation 

1  H.  462. 

31 


32  "THE  COMING  OF  MAN 

would  have  fouled  the  water.  It  slowly  became  a  lung.  In 
these  marshy  pools  overgrown  during  the  wet  season  with 
all  sorts  of  weeds  and  plant-life,  the  paddle-like  fins  would 
have  been  of  little  service  to  forms  hovering  or  crawling  along 
the  bottom;  they  became  jointed  and  changed  into  legs,  and 
gradually  the  amphibious  animal  emerged  more  and  more  and 
ventured  out  on  the  land. 

Much  still  remained  to  be  done  before  the  body  was  fully 
shaped  in  all  its  parts.  The  blood-system  had  to  be  enlarged 
and  modified  in  connection  with  air-breathing.  The  lungs 
became  more  complex  and  spongy,  offering  a  larger  respiratory 
surface.  In  the  thick  growth  of  ferns  and  club-mosses  the 
eyes  were  for  a  time  of  less  use  than  the  sense  of  smell,  and 
the  higher  development  of  this  sense  reacted  on  the  brain. 
The  skeleton  of  a  form  supported  by  four  legs,  rather  than 
floating  or  swimming  in  the  water,  gained  increased  strength 
and  stiffness.  In  backbone  and  skull  and  elsewhere  cartilage 
was  replaced  by  bone  under  the  stimulus  of  new  strains. 
The  muscular  system  of  shoulder  and  thigh  became  heavier 
and  more  complex,  that  of  the  trunk  began  to  lighten. 

Perhaps  the  most  important  change  of  all  was  the  rise  of 
temperature  in  the  body.  In  the  better  conducting  medium 
of  the  water  the  heat  produced  within  escaped  rapidly  and 
was  lost.  The  temperature  of  the  body  of  a  fish  can  be  only 
slightly  higher  than  that  of  the  surrounding  water  and  varies 
accordingly.  Heat  radiates  into  air  far  less  rapidly,  hence 
the  temperature  of  the  body  gradually  rises.  It  is  still 
variable  in  amphibia  and  modern  reptiles,  in  mammals  and 
birds  it  will  become  constant  and  high. 

All  chemical  changes  go  on  more  rapidly  as  temperature 
rises,  but  all  organs  are  not  equally  affected.  The  more  un- 
stable the  material  of  the  tissue,  the  greater  the  quickening 
of  the  changes.  Cartilage  and  bone  are  slightly  stimulated, 
muscle  far  more;  the  markedly  protoplasmic  structures  like 
nerve-centers  and  glands  w^ill  be  stimulated  most  of  all,  and 
their  development  will  be  hastened  proportionately. 

Life  on  land  brought  new  difficulties  and  dangers  but  also 


"THE  RISE  OF  LAND  LIFE  33 

release  and  escape  from  old  limitations  into  a  host  of  new 
possibilities.  Says  Lull:  ''The  sea  is  so  changeless  and  the 
range  of  its  conditions  so  small  that  evolution  within  it  is 
not  stimulated  as  it  is  on  land."  ^  Life  is  far  more  complex. 
The  animal  is  continually  pelted  with  new  stimuli  and  expe- 
riences; hence  the  large  size  and  accompanying  long  life  of 
the  individual,  the  storing  up  of  the  results  of  these  experi- 
ments in  the  growing,  changing  impressible  brain.  Not  yet, 
but  some  day,  the  land-vertebrate  will  become  intelligent. 

But  life  on  land  and  in  the  air  initiated  changes  of  greater 
importance  though  of  far  slower  realization  than  any  which 
we  have  yet  noticed.  The  development  of  the  muscular  and 
nervous  systems  is  accompanied  by  a  more  rapid  combustion 
of  food  material;  they  are  expensive  luxuries.  Hence,  as  we 
have  seen,  the  surplus  devoted  to  reproduction,  enormous  in 
parasites,  very  large  in  sessile  or  slow  moving  forms,  is  fast 
sinking  to  a  minimum.  Yet  speed  and  muscular  and  nervous 
energy  will  increase  still  more  rapidly  from  this  time  on. 

This  rapid  decrease  of  surplus  for  reproduction  is  a  danger 
signal;  it  suggests  or  threatens  race  suicide.  We  remember 
that  the  number  of  eggs  must  be  inversely  proportional  to  their 
size;  and  the  size  of  the  egg  is  determined  chiefly  by  the 
amount  of  nutriment  required  to  support  the  embryo  until 
it  can  shift  for  itself.  This  again  is  determined  by  the 
complexity  of  the  animal  and  the  conditions  accompanying  its 
birth.  If  a  form  is  born  in  water,  like  a  fish  or  tadpole,  it 
can  almost  float  to  its  food.  It  swims  by  vibrations  of  the 
tail,  and  thus  requires  only  the  action  of  masses  of  simple 
trunk  muscles  stimulated  and  controlled  by  a  very  simple 
nerve-center.  The  animal  born  on  land  must  walk  to  its  food. 
This  demands  a  considerable  development  of  complex  sets 
of  muscles  controlled  by  a  correspondingly  complex  brain. 
This  again  demands  a  steadily  lengthening  period  during 
which  the  embryo  must  be  supported,  boarded  as  it  were. 

In  one  word  every  egg  of  an  animal  born  on  land  must  be 
far  larger  than  of  one  born  in  the  water.     The  young  of  am- 

2  H :  479- 


34  T^HE  COMING  OF  MAN 

phibia  are  born  in  the  water,  those  of  all  higher  animals  on 
land.  The  eggs  of  the  amphibian  are  far  larger  and  less 
numerous  than  those  of  the  average  fish;  but  far  smaller  than 
those  of  reptiles.  The  decrease  in  the  number  of  eggs  is 
alarming.  Fish  produce  eggs  by  thousands  or  even  millions, 
amphibia  by  hundreds,  reptiles  perhaps  by  tens,  birds  and 
mammals  by  still  smaller  units. 

This  condition  can  be  remedied  and  its  dangers  averted 
only  by  a  steadily  increasing  and  best  possible  care  of  the 
young.  We  find  little  of  this  in  most  reptiles,  much  in  birds; 
in  all  higher  mammals  the  eggs  are  carried  in  the  body  of  the 
mother  until  birth,  and  the  care  of  the  young  is  continued 
for  a  steadily  increasing  infantile  period  after  birth,  which 
in  higher  mammals  and  man  is  followed  by  a  period  of  child- 
hood. Em.ergence  on  land  revolutionized  vertebrate  life;  evo- 
lution in  the  face  of  limitations  and  opposition  often  becomes 
revolution.  The  ice  formed  during  a  long  hard  winter  blocks 
the  channel  and  holds  back  the  gathering  flood.  Either  the 
ice  gives  way  or  the  water  seeks  and  ploughs  out  a  new  channel 
to  its  goal. 

We  have  left  our  amphibians  far  behind  and  must  return 
to  them  and  their  descendants.  The  mud-puppy  of  our  lakes 
gives  us  a  good  example  of  a  primitive  amphibian;  the  newt  or 
salamander  of  a  far  more  advanced  form.  Frogs  and  toads 
represent  a  late,  greatly  modified  and  very  peculiar 
branch. 

From  some  primitive  amphibian  the  reptiles  diverged  in 
all  directions.  The  primitive  reptiles  were  creeping  forms, 
sometimes  dragging  the  body  on  the  ground.  But  the  legs  soon 
strengthen  and  lengthen  as  in  lizards.  The  reptiles  soon  out- 
grew the  difficulties  of  land  life,  found  abundant  food  and 
easy  place.  They  were  very  precocious  and  advanced  rapidly. 
During  Mesozoic  time  there  were  running,  striding  and  even 
flying  forms.  The  huge,  well-armed  dinosaurs  ruled  the 
world,  and  it  seemed  as  if  no  other  form  could  ever  compete 
with  them.  It  was  a  marvellous  class  of  vertebrates  with  a 
fascinating  history  into-  which   we  have  no   time   to  enter. 


"THE  RISE  OF  LAND  LIFE  35 

Their  defeat  or  senescence,  failure  and  practical  disappear- 
ance is  still  hard  to  understand. 

From  some  not  very  primitive  reptile,  birds  are  descended. 
If  swiftness  of  locomotion  is  the  goal  of  animal  development,  it 
culminated  in  birds.  Coordinated  with  and  stimulated  by 
their  swift  loaomotion  is  the  high  development  of  the  sense- 
organs  in  the  head,  the  look-out  of  the  flying-machine.  The 
eyes  are  enormous,  the  sense  of  smell  is  exceedingly  keen; 
song  suggests  well  tuned  ears.  The  body  is  compact  and 
light  to  the  last  degree.  The  light  stiff  skeleton  is  a  marvel- 
lous piece  of  engineering  architecture.  The  back-bone,  com- 
pletely ossified,  stiffens  the  body  for  flight.  The  bones  of 
the  shoulder  girdle  are  admirably  modelled  and  arranged  to 
meet  the  strain  of  the  heavy  muscles  which  produce  the  down- 
stroke  of  the  wings.  The  head  is  lightened  by  replacing 
jaws  and  teeth  by  a  horny  beak,  the  tail  shortened  corre- 
spondingly. The  heaviest  organs  in  the  short  trunk  are  lo- 
cated as  far  as  possible  just  beneath  the  line  of  support,  join- 
ing the  sockets  of  the  bones  of  the  wings.  The  weight  of 
the  body  is  lessened  by  reducing  the  least  useful  portions  of 
the  vegetative  organs.  The  respiratory  organs  are  arranged 
so  as  to  supply  oxygen  to  all  parts  of  the  body  with  the 
smallest  weight  and  least  strain  on  the  heart. 

The  scales  of  reptiles  have  mostly  become  feathers,  mar- 
vellous structures,  combining  lightness,  elasticity,  durability, 
and  protection  against  cold  and  wet.  The  combination  of 
great  energy  and  food-combustion  with  the  warm  covering 
gives  the  body  a  constant  temperature  some  ten  degrees  Fahr- 
enheit above  that  of  higher  mammals.  There  are  no  sweat 
glands  to  reduce  it.  We  expect  a  very  high  development  of 
the  brain.  Here  we  are  somewhat  disappointed.  In  intel- 
ligence, at  least,  the  higher  mammals  seem  decidedly  superior. 

The  eggs  of  birds  relatively  to  the  weight  of  the  adult  body 
are  much  larger  than  those  of  reptiles.  But  the  young  are 
usually  born  entirely  incapable  of  caring  for  themselves  and 
are  tended,  fed  and  protected  by  the  parents  for  several 
weeks.     They  are  few  in  number;  in  certain  shore-birds  only 


36  "THE  COMING  OF  MAN 

one  or  two  at  a  season,  yet  these  birds  often  appear  in  vast 
flocks  at  their  remote,  solitary  and  inaccessible  nesting  places. 
To  reach  these  breeding-grounds  long  migrations  are  often 
necessary,  an  important  subject  into  which  we  cannot  enter. 
The  bird  will  always  be  an  object  of  fascination  both  for  its 
attainments  and  its  limitations.  Structurally  and  anatomi- 
cally as  a  flying-machine,  it  is  unsurpassed  and  seems  unsur- 
passable. It  disappoints  us,  perhaps  because  it  is  a  finished 
product.  It  seems  to  have  reached  its  culmination.  Perhaps, 
as  a  bird,  it  is  as  nearly  complete  and  perfect,  as  it  well  can 
be. 

Mammals  are  in  many  ways  less  interesting  than  birds. 
There  is  nothing  spectacular  or  even  very  striking  in  their 
history.  They  have  always  been  plodding,  slowly  progressive 
forms. 

The  skeleton  is  entirely  ossified  and  well  molded  and 
framed,  but  heavier  than  in  birds.  The  vital  organs  are,  as 
a  rule,  in  no  way  superior  to  those  of  birds.  Their  slower 
locomotion  makes  exceeding  keenness  of  sense  —  except  per- 
haps of  smell  —  less  important.  Their  temperature  is  lower 
by  some  ten  degrees  Fahrenheit,  as  we  have  already  seen. 

They  started  with  a  covering  of  scales  like  those  of  primi- 
tive reptiles,  from  which  they  seem  to  be  descended.  These 
scales  have  been  retained  as  a  covering  for  the  body  in  a  few 
forms;  and  still  persist  on  the  tail  of  some  rodents,  as  the  rat. 
In  primitive  forms  the  legs  are  stout  but  short,  as  in  most 
recent  reptiles.  They  laid  eggs  like  reptiles,  and  this  habit 
is  still  retained  by  echidna  and  platypus  in  New  Zealand. 
Could  we  have  seen  these  primitive  animals  running  or  shuf- 
fling over  the  ground,  we  could  not  have  considered  them  very 
promising.  Appearing  in  the  Cretaceous  period  at  the  end 
of  Mesozoic  time  they  long  remained  completely  outclassed 
by  the  reptiles  and  began  their  period  of  rapid  development 
and  rise  to  supremacy  only  in  Cenozoic  time.^ 

^  We   may   yet    return   to   the   older   view    that,  they   had    appeared    in 
Triassic  times. 


tHE  RISE  OF  LAND  LIFE  37 

The  feathers  of  birds  are  modified  scales;  the  hairs  of 
mammals  originated  as  sensory  organs,  somewhat  Hke  the 
"  whiskers  "  of  a  cat.*  There  were  perhaps  three  of  them 
protruding  from  beneath  each  scale.  These  sensory  hairs  in- 
creased in  importance,  perhaps  under  the  stimulus  of  a  cool- 
ing climate,  multiplied  and  became  a  coat,  while  the  scales 
gradually  disappeared.  The  original  use  of  these  hairs  is 
hard  to  determine.  They  may  have  been  of  use  in  the  crannies 
and  dark  corners  whither  the  mammals  took  refuge  when 
hunted  by  the  reptiles. 

The  next  group  of  mammals  after  the  egg-laying  mono- 
tremes,  like  platypus,  was  that  of  the  marsupials.  Here  the 
female  carries  the  eggs  and  embryos  in  the  uterus-  without  any 
placenta  or  organic  connection  between  mother  and  young. 
This  embryonic  and  foetal  period  is  very  brief..  The  young  are 
born  in  an  immature  condition  and  are  carried  and  suckled 
in  a  marsupium  or  pouch  until  able  to  care  for  them- 
selves. 

Placental  mammals  seem  to  have  quickly  outgrown  the  mar- 
supial stage.  In  them  a  foetal  membrane  has  put  out  pro- 
jections which  interlock  with  similar  projections  from  the 
lining  of  the  uterus  of  the  mother  forming  the  placenta.  Hence 
oxygen  and  nutriment  can  diffuse  through  the  thin  membranes 
separating  the  blood-vessels  of  the  mother  from  those  of  the 
young.  Its  foetal  stage  can  now  be*  greatly  lengthened  and 
birth  delayed. 

The  Eocene,  the  earliest  period  of  Cenozoic  or  Tertiary 
time,  shows  us  placental  mammals  already  distributed  in  their 
chief  orders.  It  appears  to  have  been  preceded  by  a  colder 
epoch  at  the  close  of  Mesozoic,  and  this  may  have  contributed  ^^ 
to  the  downfall  of  reptiles  whose  most  highly  developed  forms  ^ 
have  now  disappeared.  From  this  time  on  placental  mam- 
mals multiply  and  become  more  diversified.  Insectivorous 
forms  lead  over  to  true  carnivora;  rodents,  represented  to-day 
by  rabbits,  squirrels  and  mice,  have  appeared.  We  find  un- 
gulates, like  cattle,  deer  and  horses,  with  hoofs,  and  with 

*V.  85 


38  "THE  COMING  OF  MAN 

teeth  adapted  to  a  browsing  or  a  grazing  diet.  They  have 
lengthened  their  legs  and  become  swift  and  wary.  Every 
one  of  these  and  other  orders  adapted  itself  to  its  own  place, 
food  and  conditions,  and  met  and  solved  the  problem  of  the 
struggle  for  existence  in  its  own  way. 

The  primates,  including  monkeys  and  apes  as  well  as  man, 
are  represented  in  Eocene  deposits  by  forms  akin  to  the 
lemurs  or  ''  half-apes  "  whose  center  and  chief  home  is  now 
in  Madagascar.  They  may  have  originated  in  the  north- 
western part  of  North  America.  From  this  region  one  branch 
went  southward  and  gave  rise  to  the  South  American  mon- 
keys with  prehensile  tails  and  a  rather  poorly  developed 
hand.  A  second  branch  migrated  into  Asia,  and  from  these 
the  catarrhini  or  old-world  apes  are  descended.  At  the  head 
of  the  apes  stand  the  anthropoids:  the  gibbon,  the  orang,  the 
chimpanzee  and  the  gorilla.  Every  one  of  them  approaches  or 
resembles  man  in  some  respect  more  closely  than  does  any  other 
of  them,  and  every  one  differs  from  him  in  certain  important 
characteristics. 

The  most  important  and  influential  characteristics  of  all 
the  anthropoids  is  their  arboreal  character.  The  squirrel  runs 
up  the  trunk  of  a  tree  or  along  its  branches  holding  by  its 
claws.  The  primates  are  larger  forms.  They  stand  on  one 
branch  and  grasp  another  above  them  with  their  hands.  They 
are  genuine  climbers,  differentiating  hand  and  arm  sharply 
from  foot  and  leg.  They  have  not  closely  adapted  their  teeth 
to  any  one  kind  of  food  as  nearly  all  other  groups  of  mam- 
m.als  have  done,  but  are  practically  omnivorous.  This  char- 
acteristic was  a  great  advantage  to  their  descendant  man, 
to  whom  almost  any  kind  of  food  was  welcome. 

We  can  hardly  imagine  a  better  school  for  the  training 
of  our  primate  ancestor  than  arboreal  life.  He  had  to  train 
arm  and  hand  to  a  great  variety  of  very  different  and  pre- 
cise movements.  Wallace  tells  us  that  the  orang  in  the  tropi- 
cal forest  can  swing  himself  from  branch  to  branch  and  tree 
to  tree  as  fast  as  the  hunter  can  follow  it  on  the  ground  below. 
This  is  the  best  training  possible  at  this  stage  for  the  de- 


rH£  m^E  OF  LAND  LIFE  39 

velopment  of  the  brain.  It  is  a  sort  of  course  of  manual  train- 
ing in  the  use  of  eye  and  hand. 

In  leaping  from  tree  to  tree  eye  and  brain  must  see,  meas- 
ure and  recognize  exactly  the  direction,  distance  and  strength 
of  the  branch  and  the  right  point  to  be  grasped.  The  body 
must  be  hurled  in  exactly  the  right  direction  with  the  proper 
amount  of  force.  Hand  and  arm  must  be  extended  so  as  to 
grasp  the  right  point  at  the  critical  time.  All  this  series 
of  observations  and  complex  movements  is  probably,  or  may 
be,  worked  out  and  completed  with  little  conscious  thought. 
But  the  capacity  for  executing  the  movement  has  crystallized 
out  of  a  long  series  of  experiments,  and  demands  an  exceed- 
ingly complex  brain  for  its  performance.  We  do  not  won- 
der that  the  anthropoid  brain  shows  us  a  clear  ground  plan 
of  the  brain  of  man  with  all  its  centers  represented,  though 
often  very  incompletely. 

The  process  of  evolution  began  with  organs  of  digestion 
used  mainly  to  supply  material  for  reproduction.  The  whole 
aim  of  life  seemed  to  be  to  increase  and  multiply,  to  exist  and 
survive.  Then  muscles  crept  in  as  means  of  getting  food 
and  escaping  danger.  These  occur  at  first  as  heavy  masses  of 
trunk  muscles  giving  at  best  only  writhing  locomotion.  Then 
appendages  appear  at  first  mere  unjointed  fins  like  paddles. 
Then  jointed  appendages  arise,  at  first  weak,  short  and  clumsy, 
then  strengthening  and  lengthening  with  steady  increase  of 
freedom  and  precision  in  the  movements  of  different  parts, 
especially  of  the  distal  parts  as  evolution  shifts  its  field  from 
the  stout  heavy  clumsy  fundamental  muscles  of  the  trunk  and 
shoulder  to  the  numerous  small  and  fine  muscles  of  hand  and 
finger.  The  ape  has  learned  to  use  the  hand  as  a  whole 
grasping  organ,  it  was  left  to  man  to  develop  the  vast  variety 
of  movements  and  their  combinations  so  characteristic  of  the 
skilled  artisan  or  technician. 

Every  increase  in  muscle  means  and  demands  a  corres- 
ponding enlargement  of  the  nervous  system.  Increased  num- 
ber of  finer  muscles  and  combinations  of  more  precise  move- 
ments demands  a  larger  number  of  more  complex  centers 


40  "THE  COMING  OF  MAN 

brought  under  the  control  of  the  seeing,  combining  and  con- 
trolling brain.  Training  of  the  hand  and  finger  under  the  di- 
rection of  the  eye  means  mental  development.  The  brain  of 
an  anthropoid  is  an  organ  of  vast  complexity  which  bristles 
with  possibilities.  The  ape  is  no  longer  a  mere  reflexive  or 
instinctive  machine.  He  learns  by  experience  and  has  far 
more  than  a  dawning  intelligence.  He  has  achieved  much,  he 
is  still  indefinitely  far  from  anything  approaching  complete 
attainment. 

Arboreal  training  can  do  little  more  for  him.  Complete 
adaptation  to  arboreal  life  might  make  him  a  sloth.  It  is 
high  time  he  was  promoted  to  a  different  school  with  more 
difficult  problems  better  suited  to  awaken  his  dawning  powers. 
But  "  there's  the  rub."  That  school  must  be  on  the  ground 
which  is  in  possession  of  the  keen,  swift,  athletic,  gladiatorial 
well-armed  carnivora.  He  is  weak,  defenceless,  unfitted  for 
swift  locomotion  on  the  ground.  The  chances  are  all  against 
him.  Why  should  he  descend?  Nature  seems  to  have  blun- 
dered. She  has  given  the  weapons,  skill  and  strength  to  the 
brute;  the  better  brain  with  all  its  possibilities  is  in  the  head 
of  a  weakling.  She  ought  to  have  kept  them  both  combined 
in  one  individual  or  group.  Now  they  are  hopelessly  sep- 
arated.   The  outlook  is  certainly  anything  but  encouraging. 


IV 
THE  COMING  OF  SAVAGE  MAN 

SAYS  Lull  of  modernized  or  now  existing  mammals: 
"  They  are  all  creatures  of  high  potentiality,  and, 
where  they  became  extinct,  were  rather  the  victims  of 
circumstance  than  creatures  which  died  bcause  of  lack  of 
adaptability:  although  certain  groups  seem  to  have  run  a 
natural  course  and  their  extinction  was  heralded  by  evidences 
of  racial  senility." 

"  As  the  archaic  forms  were  characterized  by  lack  of  pro- 
gressive brain  and  teeth  and  feet,  so  the  modernized  races 
were  distinguished  by  the  possession  sometimes  of  one  (pri- 
mates), sometimes  of  two  (elephants),  again  by  all  three 
(horses)  of  these  destiny  controlling  organs,  but  in  general 
the  modernized  animals  were  progressive,  highly  adaptable 
forms. ^     We  might  say  they  were  "  educable." 

They  seem  to  have  originated  in  a  circumpolar  region  which 
in  early  Cretaceous  days  enjoyed  a  warm,  equable  climate. 
The  flora  of  the  coast  of  Greenland  was  subtropical,  and  a 
temperature  like  that  of  Cuba  to-day  spread  over  Spitzbergen 
and  Alaska  also.  Through  early  Cenozoic  or  Tertiary  time 
there  was  a  gradual  cooling  of  climate  and  corresponding 
southward  migration  of  higher  plants  and  mammals. 

Among  these  were  our  primates  of  whom  Lull  says :  "  It 
is  only  in  the  brain  and  such  correlated  modifications  as  men- 
tal development  entails  that  the  primates  may  justly  lay  claim 
to  superiority,  for  in  other  respects  they  are  as  humble  and  gen- 
eralized a  group,  with  very  few  exceptions,  as  the  mammalian 
class  contains."  ^ 

1 H.  560. 
2  H :  642. 

4t 


42  "THE  COMING  OF  MAN 

We  may  well  imagine  these  primates  as  slowly  crowded  out 
of  northern  Europe  and  Asia.  The  Alps  in  Europe,  the  Black 
and  Caspian  Seas,  with  the  Caucasus  mountains  between, 
barred  the  farther  escape  southward.  Between  these  western 
barriers  and  the  great  eastern  Himalaya  elevation  lay  Western 
Turkestan  and  the  uplands  of  the  Iranian  plateau.  Even  here 
the  increasing  coolness  and  dryness  of  Miocene  and  early 
Pliocene  times  were  causing  forest  to  give  place  to  ever  widen- 
ing stretches  of  open  grassland.  The  tropical  and  most  of  the 
semitropical  trees  have  been  driven  farther  southward.  It 
is  no  longer  a  suitable  home  for  arboreal  forms  depending 
upon  trees  for  home  and  refuge,  and  fruits  for  a  good  part 
of  their  food. 

Most  of  the  anthropoids  continued  the  southward  retreat. 
Gorilla  and  chimpanzee  v/ent  into  Africa;  the  orangs  entered 
India  and  thence  the  long  Malay  Peninsula  to  what  are  now 
islands  in  the  Indian  Ocean.  The  gibbons  seem  to  have  lagged 
behind  in  this  southward  march. 

Following  these  immigrants  was  one  group  which  had  ap- 
parently lingered  still  farther  behind.  They  may  have  come 
from  farthest  north.  They  had  been  the  last  to  retreat, 
had  been  toughened  by  the  cooling  chmate,  hardened  and 
trained  by  the  diminishing  supply  of  the  most  easily  obtained 
and  attractive  food.  Either  caught  in  some  dwindling  forest 
region  or  open  park-land  or  tempted  by  the  richer  supply 
of  food  on  the  ground,  they  began  to  venture  to  come  down 
from  the  trees;  to  search  for  roots  and  bulbs,  berries  and 
similar  fruits,  insects  and  their  larvae,  and  the  small  animals 
living  along  the  streams.  It  was  a  hazardous  experiment; 
but  they  made  it,  somewhat  from  inclination,  far  more  by  com- 
pulsion. Thus  we  may  imagine  or  guess  that  the  final  and 
for  them  irrevocable  step  was  accomplished. 

It  was  anything  but  a  safe  or  promising  venture  for  an 
arboreal  form.  The  ground  belonged  to  the  carnivora;  pow- 
erful lithe  forms,  with  sharp  claws  and  teeth,  of  speed  and 
skill  in  stalking  and  springing  upon  their  prey.  The  anthro- 
poid had  led  a  safe  peaceful  life,  and  had  remained  without 


"THE  COM'ING  OF  SAVAGE  MAN  43 

weapons  or  armor.  Against  their  strength  and  wiles  he  could 
pit  only  his  few  brains  and  poor  wits.  His  bare  hands  availed 
him  little  or  nothing.  It  would  have  seemed  to  any  intelligent 
onlooker  a  hopeless  struggle.  The  remaining  trees  must  have 
been  a  welcome  refuge  long  after  they  ceased  to  furnish  a 
permanent  dwelling  place. 

The  legs  gradually  lengthened  and  strengthened  with  the 
habit  of  walking.  The  arms  shortened  somewhat;  the  hands 
were  used  for  a  variety  of  new  purposes.  They  were  the 
only  tools  of  our  anthropoid  ancestor.  The  eyes  were  always 
watching  for  every  dim  and  remote  sign  of  attack,  the  ear 
intent  to  catch  the  faintest  warning  of  approach  of  danger. 
This  was  a  new  schooling,  very  different  from  the  manual 
training  or  gymnastics  of  arboreal  life.  The  tests  were  ex- 
ceedingly severe;  only  those  who  ''took  honors"  survived. 

Whether  the  orang  ever  intentionally  throws  down  handy 
missiles  at  his  enemies  may  still  be  doubted.  It  is  hardly 
beyond  his  skill  or  intelligence.  Our  ancestor  must  soon  have 
learned  to  throw  a  handy  stone  or  use  a  convenient  stick 
against  smaller  enemies.  To  have  used  a  sharp  stick  for 
digging  would  have  required  an  intelligence  no  greater  than 
that  of  the  young  gorilla  to-day.  If  he  is  learning  to  eke 
out  the  weakness  of  his  hands  by  addition  of  stick  or  stone, 
he  has  started  on  the  endless  road  of  tool-using  and  device,  of 
discovery  and  invention. 

At  Trinil,  in  central  Java,  Dubois  discovered  somewhat  scat- 
tered remains  which  appear  to  have  belonged  to  one  indi- 
vidual to  which  he  gave  the  name  of  pithecanthropus  erectus, 
or  the  erect  ape-man,  and  which  seems  to  stand  midway  be- 
tween man  and  the  apes.  The  remains  consisted  of  two  molar 
teeth,  a  thigh-bone,  and  the  top  of  a  skull.  The  cranium  is 
low,  the  forehead  exceedingly  retreating,  giving  but  very  small 
space  for  the  frontal  lobes  of  the  brain.  The  brain-cast,  made 
from  the  cranial  cavity,  shows,  according  to  Dubois,  that  the 
speech  area  is  about  twice  as  large  as  in  certain  apes  and  only 
one-half  as  large  as  in  man.  In  size  the  brain  stands  some- 
what above  midwav  betv^een  the  highest  recent  apes  and  the 


44  "^HE  COMING  OF  MAN 

lowest  existing  men.  The  thigh-bone  shows  that  pithecanthro- 
pus could  have  stood  and  walked  erect  quite  comfortably. 
There  has  been  and  still  is  much  difference  of  opinion  as  to 
the  exact  position  of  this  interesting  being.  Opinion  was 
long  divided  nearly  equally  between  those  who  considered 
it  as  the  highest  ape  and  others  who  held  it  to  be  the  very  low- 
est man. 

Whether  we  think  that  pithecanthropus  was  approaching 
or  had  already  passed  the  threshold  of  manhood  depends  much 
upon  where  we  draw  the  line  between  ape  and  man,  a  line 
largely  artificial  and  as  difficult  to  fix  as  the  day  and  hour 
when  the  youth  becomes  of  age;  and  what  .human  characteris- 
tics we  select  to  mark  it.  In  his  erect  posture  and  some  other 
physical  traits  he  seems  already  to  have  attained  manhood, 
mentally  he  was  probably  inferior  to  even  the  lowest  savage 
races  of  to-day. 

Says  Osbom:  '^  Certainly  Java  was  then  a  part  of  the 
Asiatic  continent  and  herds  of  great  mammals  roamed  freely 
over  the  plains  from  the  foot-hills  of  the  Himalaya  Moun- 
tains to  the  borders  of  the  ancient  Trinil  River  while  simi- 
lar apes  inhabited  the  forest.  At  this  time  the  orang  may 
have  entered  the  forests  of  Borneo,  which  are  at  present  its 
home."  ^ 

We  have  seen  that  the  anthropoid  apes  went  southward  into 
the  Malay  Peninsula  or  turned  westward  and  then  southward 
into  Africa.  The  Negritos,  the  most  primitive  human  peoples, 
are  found  to-day  in  India  and  the  islands  of  the  Malay  Archi- 
pelago; v/hile  another  branch  became  the  pigmies  of  the  forests 
of  central  Africa.  The  negroid  tribes  seem  to  have  followed 
the  same  courses.  It  was  the  line  of  least  resistance  leading 
to  lands  where  food  was  abundant,  climate  kindly  and  life 
easy.  To  this  environment  and  its  modes  of  life  and  few  de- 
mands they  cheerfully  conformed. 

Migration  from  the  Iranian  Plateau  is  open  in  all  directions.^ 

^24:77. 
H.  676. 
4  55  •■  18.  184. 


"THE  COMING  OF  SAVAGE  MAN  45 

At  a  far  later  date  Hamitic  and  Semitic  tribes  went  south- 
westward  toward  northern  Africa;  the  Semites  making 
Arabia  their  home  and  center  of  radiation,  the  ancestors  of 
the  Hamitic  people  going  farther  and  settling  along  the 
southern  shore  of  the  Mediterranean.  These  regions  were 
highly  favored  during  the  moist  and  cool  glacial  period  of 
the  Pleistocene  epoch,  when  large  parts  of  the  Sahara  desert 
blossomed  like  a  rose  and  supported  a  numerous  population. 

Not  very  much  later,  if  at  all,  people  began  to  follow  the 
great  river  route  up  the  valleys  of  the  Euphrates  and  its 
branches  into  Asia  Minor.  This  region  also  offered  great  ad- 
vantages being  a  border  land  between  northern  and  southern 
florae,  and  offering  many  choice  specimens  of  both,  especially 
of  fruits  and  nuts. 

There  was  a  third  route  which  apparently  became  of  im- 
portance only  at  a  far  later  date  in  prehistoric  times.  It  was 
the  most  northerly  of  all,  and  led  westward  around  the  north- 
ern end  of  the  Caspian  Sea,  the  foot-hills  of  the  Caucasus,  the 
northern  shore  of  the  Black  Sea,  and  up  the  Danube  Valley 
into  the  heart  of  Europe.  It  is  now  a  broad  zone  of  grass- 
land or  steppe,  much  like  our  western  prairies.  Whether  it 
was  forested  during  the  height  of  the  moist  glacial  period 
seems  still  uncertain.  In  that  case  the  southern  boundary  line 
of  the  forest  has  retreated  northward  since  that  time.  It 
was  apparently  the  least  attractive  and  last  route  to  be  fol- 
lowed. It  is  crossed  by  great  rivers  pouring  southward  from 
Russia  into  the  Caspian  and  Black  Seas,  and  every  river 
valley  formed  a  branch  route.  Hence  Russia  and  Poland 
furnish  many  interesting  remains  of  early  prehistoric  days 
while  the  story  of  later  epochs  is  left  in  the  remains  of  the 
Danube  valley  and  its  extensions  northward. 

The  history  of  the  development  of  pithecanthropus  or  some 
similar  form  into  a  human  being  worthy  of  the  name  is  still 
shrouded  in  darkness  which  will  only  gradually  be  dispelled 
by  farther  discoveries  in  ill-explored  western  Asia  and  India. 
We  pass  from  the  Iranian  plateau  to  the  far  better  explored 
countries  of  Europe. 


46  fHE  COMING  OF  MAN 

Man  arrived  in  Europe  at  some  time  during  the  glacial 
period  or  great  Ice  Age.^  In  Pleistocene  times  a  somewhat 
colder  climate  and  high  degree  of  humidity  resulted  in  heavy 
snow-fall  and  the  formation  of  great  glaciers.  These  covered 
Scotland  and  Scandinavia,  crowding  well  southward  in  Eng- 
land, and  as  far  as  the  Harz  mountains  in  Germany.  The 
Alpine  glaciers  stretched  northward  leaving  in  central  Europe 
only  a  narrow  band  of  unglaciated  territory. 

The  habitable  portions  of  northern  Europe  at  this  time 
were  France  and  southern  England  in  the  west,  Russia  in  the 
east,  and  a  narrow  zone  connecting  the  two.  We  remember 
that  parts,  at  least,  of  the  Sahara  desert  were  well  watered  at 
this  time,  and  that  one  or  more  land-bridges  crossed  the  Medi- 
terranean from  south  to  north.  Accordingly  we  find  remains 
of  African  animals,  e.  g.,  rhinoceros  and  hippopotamus,  min- 
gling with  those  of  northern  forms.  This  leads  us  to  suspect 
that  the  first  m.en  may  have  arrived  in  Europe  by  the  same 
route. 

We  must  not  think  of  the  long  glacial  period  as  one  of  un- 
interrupted cold  and  ice.  We  find  it  broken  into  a  series  of 
alternating  glacial  and  interglacial  epochs  ending  with  the 
final  glacial  retreat.  During  the  interglacial  epochs  the  cli- 
mate was  usually  mild,  sometimes  warmer  than  to-day.  The 
arrival  of  man  in  northern  Europe  during  the  long  and  warm 
second  interglacial  epoch  is  proven  by  the  discovery  of  a 
human  jaw,  near  Heidelberg,  and  possibly  by  some  very  ancient 
fragments  found  in  England.  Of  the  life,  habits  and  attain- 
ments of  these  earliest  immigrant  adventurers  we  know  prac- 
tically nothing. 

During  the  third  interglacial  epoch  Palaeolithic  man  had 
evidently  taken  full  possession  of  France  and  southern  Eng- 
land, which  then  formed  one  province  or  region  unbroken  by 
the  English  Channel,  which  is  of  later  origin.  The  remains 
of  the  Neanderthal  race  are  found  in  other  parts  of  Europe 
also  and  are  probably  still  more  widely  spread. 

What  and  how  much  did  this  primitive  savage  bring  with 

^24:34.  40. 


"THE  COMING  OF  SAVAGE  MAN  47 

him  into  Europe  one  or  two  hundred  thousand  years  ago? 
First  and  most  important  he  brought  with  him  at  least  a  crude 
form  of  family  life.  We  can  only  glance  at  this  attainment 
which,  more  than  any  other  has  revolutionized  life.  The 
reader  is  urged  to  study  carefully  the  works  of  Fiske  and 
Drummond  on  this  subject. 

The  earliest  mammals  laid  eggs  but  suckled  their  young. 
Even  in  marsupials,  embryonic  and  foetal  life  are  short,  but 
the  young  are  born  in  a  very  incomplete  stage  and  are  carried 
for  a  time,  nourished  and  protected  in  the  marsupial  pouch. 
In  lower  and  smaller  mammals  the  embryonic  and  foetal  pe- 
riods are  still  comparatively  short.  In  larger  and  higher 
forms  they  are  longer  until  in  the  human  being  they  occupy 
nine  months,  and  birth  is  followed  by  a  steadily  lengthening 
period  of  infancy  when  the  young  are  defended  and  suckled  by 
the  mother.  But  in  the  highest  forms  of  mammals,  distinct 
in  the  anthropoid  apes,  less  clear  as  we  pass  to  lower  forms, 
a  third  period  of  care  and  nurture  is  added,  that  of  childhood. 
Thus  the  mother  is  burdened  with  the  protection  and  care  not 
merely  of  one  or  two  young,  but  of  a  family  of  babies  and 
children  of  different  ages.^ 

In  the  case  of  the  rodents  all  three  periods  are  short 
and  the  small  young  can  be  hidden  away.  The  young  of  the 
carnivora  are  fairly  safe  because  few  enemies  dare  approach 
the  den  where  they  are  hidden.  In  ungulates  the  period  of 
gestation  is  lengthened,  but  females  and  young  are  frequently 
or  usually  protected  by  the  males  of  the  herd.  In  the  anthro- 
poid apes  the  mother  and  young  are  sometimes  protected  by 
the  arboreal  life,  or  by  the  herding  habit,  or  by  both.  The 
more  powerful,  venturesome  male  gorilla  seems  directly  to 
guard  and  protect  the  female. 

In  all  higher  mammals  the  strain  on  the  female  is  becom- 
ing unbearable  and  threatens  her  existence  and  thus  race- 
suicide  in  a  little  different  mode.  There  is  only  one  way 
out.     Some  of  the  burden  must  be  borne  by  the  male.     In 

«R. 
30 


48  fHE  COMING  OF  MAN 

rodents  and  many  carnivora  we  find  what  may  be  called  a 
maternal  family,  from  which  the  male  is  excluded.  From 
apes  upward  the  genuine  female-plus-male  family  is  and  must 
be  on  the  increase. 

Havelock  Ellis  says  that  Nature  takes  the  female  under 
her  protection.^  He  seems  to  be  right.  But  we  might  add 
that  in  mammals  and  many  other  forms  the  males,  if  of  no 
use  in  protecting  the  female  and  young,  are  encouraged  and 
stimulated  to  fight  and  kill  each  other  off  and  thus  save  feed- 
ing useless  mouths. 

The  form  of  the  family  is  still  uncertain.  Promiscuity  could 
hardly  have  been  prevalent.  Polygamy  seems  improbable  un- 
der the  conditions.  The  question  is  still  under  discus- 
sion. But  Westermarck's  plea  for  primitive  monogamy  is 
very  convincing,  and  seems  to  be  generally  gaining  accep- 
tance.® 

The  advantages  of  family  life  are  so  many  and  clear  that  we 
need  and  can  notice  only  a  very  few  of  them.  First,  and 
not  yet  sufficiently  emphasized,  is  the  prolongation  of  im- 
maturity and  possibility  of  full  development.  Living  anthro- 
poids seem  to  mature  about  the  age  of  six  or  eight  years. 
Certain  curious  facts  in  the  growth  of  the  child  lead  us  to 
suspect  that  our  latest  arboreal  ancestors  matured  between 
seven  and  nine.  Southern  and  primitive  races  still  mature 
much  earlier  than  those  who  have  wandered  into  northern 
climates  and  been  held  back  by  its  hardships. 

The  child  matures  slowly  under  the  most  favorable  con- 
ditions for  his  physical  and  mental  welfare.  In  our  devo- 
tion to  the  study  of  heredity  we  have  too  much  neglected  to 
put  proper  emphasis  on  nurture,  early  environment.  The  soil 
and  culture  is  almost  as  important  as  the  seed  in  producing 
a  good  harvest.  If  the  seed  be  a  human  germ-cell  packed 
full  of  diverse  mental  possibilities  and  tendencies  inherited 
from  different  strains  and  times,  early  nurture  can  accom- 

7    60 

*  U.  34. 


rHE  COMING  OF  SAVAGE  MAN  49 

plish  far  more  than  we  suspect,  and  even  infantile  neglect 
may  be  dangerous  or  fatal. 

The  child  has  the  advantages  of  the  experience  of  his 
parents  and  of  past  generations.  The  family  must  have  been 
the  cradle,  if  not  the  birthplace,  of  articulate  speech  which 
has  so  much  broadened  and  clarified  human  thought  and  con- 
ceptions. In  the  close  bond  of  family  life  mutual  competition 
is  replaced  by  mutual  helpfulness.  A  large  amount  of  en- 
ergy, hitherto  worse  than  wasted,  is  now  utilized  for  the  com- 
mon good.  The  child  by  his  dependence  educates  the  parents 
even  more  than  they  educate  him.  The  family  is  the  small- 
est human  unit;  and  it  remains  the  unit  of  every  larger  stage 
of  society.  The  fundamental  and  essential  moral  and  intel- 
lectual training  and  progress  are,  and  must  always  be,  the 
work  of  the  family.  There  will  always  be  a  sort  of  natural 
selection  of  families  as  well  as  of  individuals.  The  most 
firmly  united  and  best  regulated  families  will  in  the  end  "  out- 
populate  "  inferior  ones.  With  all  these  advantages  and  pos- 
sibilities we  can  hardly  fail  to  believe  that  the  family,  if  not 
fully  established  in  early  palaeolithic  time,  must  have  made 
rapid  progress  during  the  period. 

Weak  and  defenceless  man  has  survived  amid  larger,  more 
powerful  and  better  armed  antagonists.  He  is  now  hunting 
them  as  well  as  they  him.  He  has  spread  over  the  accessible 
world  and  made  himself  at  home  in  all  climates  and  condi- 
tions. His  racial  vitality  is  exceedingly  high.  He  flourished 
and  multiplied  and  spread  even  during  the  great  ice-age 
which  wrought  wide  extermination  among  the  larger  and 
higher  mammals.  His  physical  changes,  except  in  length  of 
leg  and  arm,  have  been  very  slight;  yet  he  is  evidently  very 
adaptable  as  well  as  conservative.  He  has  succeeded  far  bet- 
ter than  we  feared  or  dared  to  expect. 

Let  us  glance  at  Neanderthal  man  in  France  during  the 
warm  Chellean  period  perhaps  100,000  years  ago.^  He  has 
all  the  human  physical  characteristics,  though  his  forehead  is 

^24.  117. 


50  THE  COMING  OF  MAN 

decidedly  retreating  compared  with  that  of  later  races.  The 
changes  from  this  time  on  are  to  be  chiefly  in  the  highest 
centers  of  the  brain.  He  leads  a  hunting  or  collecting  life. 
He  has  learned  to  chip  a  flint  nodule  into  an  almond  shaped 
axe.  The  implements  of  his  ancestors  were  probably  mainly 
of  wood  and  later  of  bone  supplemented  by  an  angular  bit  of 
rock.  He  now  recognizes  the  superiority  of  flint,  and  the 
eoliths  show  us  his  long  series  of  experiments  in  learning  to 
flake  and  shape  this  useful  but  refractory  material  into  a 
well-shaped,  symmetrical  tool.  He  makes  a  variety  of  tools, 
borers,  scrapers,  etc.  Some  day  his  descendants  will  make 
machines'. 

He  lived  in  open  camps  or  villages  during  the  warmer  sea- 
sons or  epochs;  and  took  shelter  in  grottoes,  under  over- 
hanging ledges  or  in  mouths  of  caves  when  the  cold  returned; 
he  is  social.  Here  we  find  the  bones  of  animals  killed  in  the 
hunt  and  his  implements  mixed  with  the  ashes  of  his  fires. 

Already  or  a  little  later  he  buried  his  dead,  depositing  with 
them  parts  of  animals,  apparently  as  food  for  a  journey,  axes, 
strings  or  masses  of  shells  often  brought  from  a  considerable 
distance. ^^  The  shells  suggest  that  he  had  the  savage  love 
of  adornment  and  of  making  himself  conspicuous. 

His  care  of  the  dead,  his  depositing  in  the  grave  food  and 
choice  possessions  which  he  would  gladly  have  kept,  had 
he  dared  or  wished  to  retain  them,  show  that  he  has  far 
outgrown  the  purely  animal  plane,  mentally  as  well  as  physi- 
cally. He  believes  that  something  of  the  dead  outlasts  the 
body,  and  might  return  to  plague  him.  The  fact  of  this  cult 
is  evident,  its  explanation  is  another  matter.  The  growth  of 
a  belief  and  confidence  in  the  existence  of  a  spiritual  world  is 
the  great  thing. 

He  was  beginning  to  think  hard  in  a  very  dull  stupid  way 
about  a  great  variety  of  matters.  He  returned  from  the  hunt 
and  lay  before  the  fire.  Hunger  reminded  him  of  the  hard 
experiences  of  the  day,  its  failures,  blunders  or  wounds.  He 
planned  a  new  mode  of  attack  for  to-morrow.     He  dozed,  and 

loU.  8i. 


rHE  COMING  OF  SAVAGE  MAN  51 

his  dreams  being  wiser  than  his  thoughts,  as  seems  often 
the  case  with  primitive  people,  and  sometimes  with  us,  re- 
mained to  goad  and  stir  his  mind.  He  awaked  and  gazed  at 
the  fire.  It  was  a  strange  creature,  devouring  fuel,  licking 
up  the  drops  of  water  on  the  hearth,  sending  smoke  and  sparks 
skyward.  He  could  not  understand  it;  it  teased,  puzzled,  and 
burned  him. 

Nature  was  full  of  enigmas,  rain  and  hail,  frost  and  ice, 
storm  and  lightning,  sunshine  and  moon,  accidents,  diseases 
and  death.  There  must  be  in  it  more  of  a  something  like  his 
own  inner  self,  which  knew  what  he  was  doing  and  would 
punish  him  for  certain  acts  and  might  help  him,  if  he  did 
others.     He  was  not  yet  at  home  in  it. 

There  were  many  things  about  which  he  could  think,  and 
probably  talk;  far  more  about  which  he  could  only  wonder, 
for  the  world  was  full  of  mysteries.  We  have  ceased  to  won- 
der, but  the  wise  old  Greeks  knew  that  wonder  was  the  mother 
of  wisdom.  And  all  the  time  in  the  harsh  climate  and  home 
of  fierce  beasts  Nature,  "  no  fairy  godmother,"  was  always 
buffeting  him  and  goading  him  to  use  his  few  wits  to  the  ut- 
most. 

The  hundred  or  m.ore  millennia  of  lower  Palaeolithic  time 
rolled  slowly  away.  Upper  Palaeolithic  time  covering  the  final 
retreat  of  the  glaciers  ushered  in  a  new  people  and  race  which 
seem.s  to  have  very  largely  replaced  the  Neanderthal  folk. 
The  new  Cro-Magnon  race  was  of  a  different  physical  and 
mental  type  and  represented  the  noble  savage.  It  is  the 
wonder  and  admiration  of  all  students  of  prehistory.  They 
were  tall,  agile  and  vigorous,  with  high  foreheads  and  strong 
features,  and  would  have  made  fine  models  for  the  sculptors 
of  to-day.^^ 

Apparently  they  had  entered  Europe  from  the  east,  per- 
haps by  the  most  northerly  route.  They  produced  a  school  of 
painters  v/ho  covered  the  walls  of  caves  with  drawings  and 
paintings  representing  animals  with  a  lifelikeness  and  spirit 
not  excelled  by  the  most  successful  modern  painters.    Was 


11 


13.  272. 


52  "fHE  COMING  OF  MAN 

the  motive  joy  in  the  work?  Probably  to  some  extent,  and 
this  added  to  its  beauty.  But  the  painting  was  probably 
expected  to  give  them  some  occult,  magical  power  over  the 
animals  represented.  They  were  a  remarkable  race  with  an 
equally  remarkable  art. 

The  Ice  Age  wore  away.  The  tundra  with  its  mosses  and 
shrubs  gave  place  to  meadow  and  forest.  The  reindeer,  the 
chief  food  of  the  Cro-Magnon  hunters,  went  eastward  and 
northward,  and  gave  place  to  the  forest  stag.  The  hunters 
of  the  reindeer  became  fewer  in  number,  and  were  succeeded 
by  an  inferior  lot,  apparently  of  fisherfolk  along  the  streams. 
The  long  Palaeolithic  period  had  ended. 


\ 


V 

THE  DAWN  OF  CIVILIZATION 

SIGNS  of  the  approach  of  Neolithic  culture  begin  to 
appear  in  northern  Europe  about  8000  b.  c;  possibly 
as  early  as  10,000  b.  c.  The  important  part  of  the 
period  extended  from  about  6000  b.  c,  or  a  Httle  earlier, 
until  about  2500  b.  c.  At  its  very  dawn  this  region  enjoyed  a 
very  favorable  and  mild  climate,  and  peoples  poured  north- 
ward and  westward.  The  Mediterranean  race  spread  from 
the  sea  from  which  it  took  its  name  into  France  and  England. 
Broad-headed  people  appear  in  the  highlands  bordering  the 
Rhine  and  Rhone  and  in  the  foot-hills  of  the  Alps.  Primi- 
tive tribes  seep  from  Russia  and  Poland  into  Germany.  Later 
a  wave  or  tide  of  immigration  seems  to  have  poured  up  the 
Danube  valley.  All  these  people  finally  met  and  mingled  in 
Central  Europe.^ 

Very  early  we  find  them  making  pottery,  and  beginning 
to  smooth  or  polish  at  least  the  edge  of  some  of  their  stone 
axes.  Generally  they  use  less  brittle  material  than  flint. 
They  seem  to  have  experimented  on  various  sorts  of  often 
rare  rocks  and  minerals,  and  finally  to  have  become  quite 
expert  practical  mineralogists.  They  made  baskets  and  nets, 
and  learned  to  weave  cloth  of  an  excellent  quality.^  They 
lived  in  half  underground  huts;  later,  as  at  Grosgartach  and 
the  Lake  Dwellings,  in  very  comfortable  wooden  houses. 
They  raised  wheat  and  barley  and  other  grains.  They  had 
domesticated  animals:  dogs,  sheep,  cattle  and  swine.  The 
savage  has  become  civilized.     If  we  could  have  spent  a  sum- 

^55-  36-  i6i. 
^55'  131 

53 


54  ^H£  COMING  OF  MAN 

mer  in  a  Swiss  lake-dwelling,  we  should  have  found  our- 
selves comparatively  at  home,  with  much  to  enjoy  and  admire. 

During  the  later  part  of  the  period  in  northern  and  western 
Europe  we  find  m.arked  progress  in  the  care  of  the  dead.^ 
Dolmens  consisting  at  first  of  five  or  six  great  stones  are 
erected.  In  the  doorv/ay  a  hole  is  left  open,  apparently  for 
the  ingress  and  egress  of  the  soul.  The  dead  seem  not  to  be 
feared,  as  they  are  by  most  very  primitive  peoples.  The 
dolmens  are  enlarged  and  improved  until  they  become  dwell- 
ing places  for  a  large  company  of  the  departed.  Often  they 
are  surrounded  by  circles  and  radiating  alignm.ents  of  tall 
menhirs  or  standing-stones.  At  the  very  end  of  the  period  we 
find  the  dead  deposited  in  small,  completely  subterranean 
vaults,  or  sometimes  cremated;  while  the  great  stone  circles 
are  becoming  temples  rather  than  burial  places.  People  are 
evidently  thinking,  clarifying  and  changing  their  views  and 
opinions. 

The  key  and  explanation  of  all  this  progress  seems  to  lie 
fundamentally  in  the  introduction  of  agriculture  and  in  im- 
provement in  cultivating  the  ground.  This  change  took  place 
earlier  to  the  southward  and  eastward  than  in  northern  Europe. 
The  beginning  of  the  Neolithic  period  in  Crete  is  set  by  Evans 
at  about  12,000  b.  c,  de  Morgan  seems  to  have  discovered  still 
older  Neolithic  remains  at  Susa. 

The  rise  of  agriculture,  the  real  basis  of  civilization,  is  a 
long  process,  we  can  sketch  its  history  only  in  rude  outline 
basing  our  description  largely  upon  observation  of  savage 
or  half-civilized  tribes  to-day.* 

The  savage  is  as  much  collector  as  hunter,  accepting  gladly 
whatever  Nature  gives  him.  The  man  hunts  large  game  with 
good  or  bad  success.  Meanwhile  his  wife  and  children  range 
and  scour  the  surrounding  area  for  berries  and  fruits,  bulbs 
and  tubers;  frogs,  fish,  reptiles  and  large  insects;  all  sorts  of 
"  greens/'  and  whatever  is  edible.     If  she  finds  any  ripened 

^55-  123. 

*  56-58. 

35.  102.  223. 


"THE  DAWN  OF  CIVILIZA'TlON  55 

grain  or  grass,  she  will  surely  beat  out  the  seeds  and  carry 
them  home  with  her.  Here  some  of  the  seeds  and  smaller 
bulbs  fall  to  the  ground  and  are  lost,  but  sprout  and  spring 
up  in  the  rich  soil  around  the  hut.  Some  wise  woman  noticed 
this,  pulled  away  some  of  the  smothering  weeds,  and  possibly 
loosened  the  soil  with,  her  digging  stick. 

This  is  the  beginning  of  the  garden,  far  older  than  the 
farm,  for  ploughing  has  not  yet  been  thought  of,  and  hoe- 
culture  is  woman's  work.  As  population  increased,  and  game 
became  scarcer  and  warier,  she  had  to  furnish  more  and  more 
of  the  food.  Her  labors  were*  increased,  but  her  importance 
and  value  in  the  family  and  community  increased  even  more. 
Her  knowledge  of  plants  made  her  the  first  herbalist  and 
botanist,  the  first  physician;  her  knowledge  of  the  virtues 
and  harmful  properties  of  certain  roots  and  herbs  gave  her 
an  uncanny  power.  She  has  founded  agriculture  and  given  it 
a  high  position  and  value. 

The  great  danger  is  that  the  man  and  the  children  in 
hard  seasons  will  eat  up  her  scanty  supply  of  seed  grain  or 
the  young  growing  roots,  and  thus  put  an  end  to  the  experi- 
ment. There  are  signs  that  here  the  priest,  medicine-man  or 
shaman  took  her  part,  and  laid  the  terrors  of  taboo,  the  for- 
bidden thing,  on  all  interference  with  her  efforts.  If  the 
priests,  the  ''  see-ers "  and  only  independent  thinkers,  and 
the  women  made  alliance,  the  men  could  only  yield. ^  The 
garden  grew  apace.  Before  the  end  of  the  period  the  plough 
was  introduced  and  pulled  by  cattle,  held  and  guided  by  the 
man.  Now  the  man  is  becoming  a  farmer.  The  economic 
importance  of  this  revolution  cannot  be  overestimated. 

It  had  other  deeper  and  higher  influences  and  results.  It 
slowly  and  gradually  bound  man  to  the  soil,  made  him  do 
many  things  which  he  preferred  not  to  do.  His  reward 
and  wealth  were  proportional  to  his  patience,  industry  and 
skill.  He  is  no  longer  foot-free  to  roam  and  wander  as  he 
will.     He  is  being  tamed  and  house-  and  home-broken.     He 


56  tHE  COMING  OF  MAN 

begins  to  own  more  things  than  a  few  flint  tools.  He  goes 
into  partnership  with  Nature  and  is  no  longer  a  pauper,  de- 
pendent on  her  rich  or  scanty  gifts.  He  is  gaining  worth 
and  dignity.  He  has  been  promoted,  if  he  could  appreciate  it, 
to  an  entirely  new  grade  and  school  of  education. 

He  has  a  family  and  a  home,  and  his  home  is  in  a  neighbor- 
hood or  village,  and  he  cannot  escape  from  it.  In  many  things 
he  must  do  as  his  neighbors  do,  talk  and  think  like  them. 
The  erection  of  great  stone  monuments  and  the  founding  and 
maintaining  of  lake-dwellings  are  the  work  of  men  who  have 
learned  to  cooperate  in  obedience  to  leaders  and  governors; 
and  apparently  the  chief  leaders  were  the  priests  and  the  old 
men  of  the  tribe. 

The  Neolithic  period  was  mainly  one  of  peace,  certainly  not 
of  the  continual  war  and  blood-shed  which  has  been  asserted 
of  it.  Weapons  are  few  and  scarce  except  among  hunting 
tribes.  It  was  a  period  of  conservatism  and  yet  of  steady 
advance,  for  the  two  are  not  incompatible. 

It  seems  safe  to  believe  that  in  Neolithic  tribes,  like  all 
peoples  in  a  similar  stage  of  development,  the  tribal  conscience 
ruled  supreme.  The  essential  characteristic  of  the  tribal  con- 
science is  the  view  that  the  whole  tribe  must  accept  the  re- 
sponsibility for  offences  of  every  individual  member  against 
individuals  of  other  tribes  or  the  gods.  It  is  illustrated  by 
the  sin  of  Achan  and  rout  of  the  Hebrews  at  Ai;  in  the  offence 
of  Agamemnon  against  the  priest  of  Apollo,  punished  by  a 
pestilence  sweeping  through  the  Greek  host;  by  the  rela- 
tions of  the  red  men  to  the  whites  in  America;  and  in  a  host 
of  other  cases  showing  its  wide  spread,  if  not  universality,  in  a 
certain  stage  of  social  development. 

If  the  tribe  is  responsible  for  the  deeds  of  its  individuals, 
it  must  and  will  control  individual  thought  and  action.  In- 
dividual freedom  is  reduced  to  a  minimum.  The  laws  of 
taboo  prescribed  by  the  priests  and  the  inviolability  of  ancient 
custom  laid  down  by  the  old  men  constitute  nearly  the  whole 
of  the  tribal  code.  It  is  like  teaching  an  awkward  squad  of 
dull   recruits   to    keep   step   or   mark   time.     Neolithic    man 


fHE  DAWN  OF  CIVILIZA'flON  57 

marched  in  lockstep.  The  "  cake  of  custom  "  hardened  over 
life.« 

All  this  had  to  be,  and  could  not  well  be  otherwise.  If  men 
and  women  were  to  live  and  walk  together  in  communities 
larger  than  the  single  family,  they  must  agree.  Insubordina- 
tion meant  anarchy  and  social  disintegration.  Freedom  of 
thought  and  action  must  wait  until  certain  fundamentals  and 
essentials  had  become  thoroughly  established.  For  thou- 
sands of  years  this  steady  and  unremitting  pressure  was  main- 
tained and  did  its  work.  It  resulted  in  tribal  citizenship  prob- 
ably based  on  community  of  blood  and  descent;  in  social  or- 
der, cooperation  and  harmony;  in  a  sort  of  government.  It 
tamed  and  civilized  the  savage  and  prepared  him  for  a  still 
higher  stage. 

The  growth  and  development  of  social  life  is  perhaps  the 
most  interesting  fact  in  the  history  of  the  life  of  higher  ani- 
mals. The  tendency  to  keep  together  is  deep-rooted.  We 
find  insects  and  their  larvae,  not  to  mention  lower  forms,  mov- 
ing in  swarms,  fish  live  and  migrate  in  schools,  partly  be- 
cause of  the  unequal  distribution  of  food,  though  even  here 
we  suspect,  or  recognize  a  feeling  of  and  for  kind.  A  dim 
feeling  of  comfort  or  enjoyment  in  companionship  has  led  to 
a  gregarious  life. 

In  birds  and  mammals  the  tendency  to  flock  or  herd  to- 
gether is  a  most  important  element  in  survival  and  progress. 
This  is  so  wide-spread  that  solitary  mammals,  Hke  some  car- 
nivora,  seem  to  be  the  exception.  Usually  they  group  to- 
gether for  mutual  aid  and  protection,  as  Kropotkin  has  shown. "^ 
The  survival  value  of  this  instinct  can  hardly  be  over- 
estimated. It  has  double  value  as  it  continually  replaces 
mutual  competition,  struggle  and  enmity,  by  mutual  coopera- 
tion, and  helpfulness,  ending  in  friendship  and  love.  It  has 
been,  perhaps,  the  strongest  factor  in  humanizing  man.  He 
has  discovered  and  formed  larger  and  larger  units  of  coopera- 
tion. 


^55-  211. 


58  fHE  COMING  OF  MAN 

Mutual  helpfulness  replaces  injurious  competition  first  in 
the  family,  then  gradually  in  neighborhood,  village,  clan  and 
tribe.  To-day  we  find  great  nations,  whose  vast  energies 
and  resources  have  led  through  fierce  competition  for  trade 
and  commerce  to  a  long  and  annihilating  war,  struggling  to- 
ward a  world-order  of  peace  and  mutual  respect  and  helpful- 
ness permeating  and  uniting  all  the  peoples  of  the  globe.  The 
cry  of  the  age  is:  "We  must  get  together."  It  is  only  the 
dawning  vision  of  something  long  foreshadowed  and  sure  to 
come. 

The  necessity  of  cooperation  is  rooted  deep  in  human  na- 
ture and  structure.  All  Palaeolithic  men  may  have  been  able 
to  sharpen  a  stick  in  the  fire  equally  well,  only  a  few  could 
chip  a  symmetrical  flint  axe  or  shave  a  bone  dagger,  the  joy 
of  the  hunter's  heart  and  eye.  Still  fewer  could  engrave  and 
ornament  it.  Division  of  labor  was  only  just  beginning  to 
enable  every  man  to  find  his  place  and  do  with  joy  the  work 
which  he  was  fitted  to  do  best.  It  shows  far  more  marked 
results  before  the  end  of  the  Neolithic  era.  We  find  centers 
of  mining  and  manufacture  of  flint  implements;  work  shops 
of  pottery,  weaving  and  other  handicrafts;  manufacture  of 
jewelry  from  amber  and  other  substances.  This  means  mu- 
tual interdependence  between  more  and  more  distant  areas, 
trade-routes  arise  and  bring  new  patterns,  influences  and 
ideas. 

Cooperation  was  fostered  or  compelled  by  the  introduction 
of  amculture  and  increase  of  population.  The  agriculturist 
lives  in  a  village  and  has  neighbors.  They  work  together 
to  rear  compact  lake-villages  or  great  stone  monuments  and 
circles.  They  must  keep  step  with  one  another;  they  cannot 
walk  together  unless   they  agree. 

In  these  villages  folk-v/ays  arise  and  become  habits. 
Habits  crystallize  in  customs;  and  the  "  cake  of  cutsom  " 
hardens  around  the  individual  and  the  social  unit.^  The 
custom  satisfies  som.e  need  or  meets  some  emergency.  It 
springs  at  first  from  a  dim  feeling  rather  than  from  clear  in- 

s  62. 


tHE  DAWN  OF  CIVILIZATION  59 

tellectual  device.  It  is  accepted  on  probation  and  is  at  first 
liable  to  change.  It  is  tested  by  a  process  of  trial  and  error; 
and  what  is  at  first  mainly  a  dim  faith  is  corrected  and  justi- 
fied or  condemned  by  experience.  Huxley  said  he  believed  in 
justification  not  by  faith  but  by  experiment.  The  savage, 
an  investor  in  "  futures  "  like  us  all,  believed  in  testing  by 
experiment  step  by  step  the  promising  suggestions  of  his 
faith.     He  accepted  the  provisional  hypothesis  which  worked. 

This  is  only  one  side  of  a  sublime  process  of  human  growth 
and  development,  probably  it  is  only  the  lower  rough  sur- 
face of  the  fabric.  The  greatest  asset  of  weak,  defenceless, 
curious,  prying  man  was  his  needs;  just  as  his  greatest  pos- 
session was  his  possibilities,  his  "  futures,"  his  Castles  in 
Spain.  He  has  long  been  prying  into  surrounding  nature, 
now  he  is  beginning  to  turn  his  attention  inward  on  himself. 
Our  "  benighted  ancestor  "  made  full  use  of  his  discoveries  in 
both  fields.  We  will  return  to  this  subject  in  our  next  chap- 
ter. 

Out  of  all  this  defencelessness  and  feeling  of  need,  prying 
curiosity,  social  mode  and  form  of  life  and  its  necessary  im- 
plications, out  of  a  dim  faith  and  endless  experiment  and 
broadening  and  deepening  experience,  rose  a  body  of  ways  and 
customs  which  set  in  tribal  law  and  tribal  conscience.  Some 
things  may  be  done;  many  must  not  be  done  under  any  prov- 
ocation or  circumstance.  They  are  taboos,  forbidden;  the 
individual  dare  not  even  think  of  rebelling.  Viewed  from  this 
standpoint  the  resulting  system  of  Mores  becomes  a  code  of 
morals  or  ethics.  It  was  hardly  the  outgrowth  of  careful 
thought;  largely,  as  to-day,  not  so  much  a  matter  of  logic  as 
of  a  certain  good  taste  or  instinct  developed  almost  uncon- 
sciously out  of  millennia  of  experience.  However  we  may  re- 
gard man's  attainments  at  this  time  as  small  or  large,  and  I 
believe  that  we  have  generally  decidedly  understimated  them, 
they  were  certainly  full  af  possibility  and  promise. 

The  development  of  primitive  religion  is  still  a  field  for 
surmise  rather  than  sure  and  definite  statement.^     Through 

9  63-71. 


6o  tHE  COMING  OF  MAN 

needs  and  fears,  wonder,  observation  and  hard  experience  man 
came  to  believe  in  beings  or  forces,  call  them  spirits  if  you 
will,  who  kept  watch  of  him  and  punished  severely,  the  for- 
bidden act  of  trespass;  some  of  whom  might  be  willing  to 
help  him  while  others  could  be  placated.  Cult  and  ritual  for 
appeasing  the  angry  and  helping  the  kindly  spirits  grew  very 
similarly  to  the  growth  of  Mores  and  morals.  Morals  and 
religion  advanced  together,  man  cooperating  with  his  gods. 
We  may  call  them  demons,  if  we  will  leave  out  the  necessary 
implication  of  evil  and  malice  usually  implied  in  this  word. 
Their  character  like  that  of  man  varied  from  extremes  of  evil 
to  those  of  preponderating  good. 

Professor  Murray  has  well  pictured  the  primitive  ritual  and 
belief  of  the  ancient  Greeks  before  the  arrival  of  Achaeans  or 
genuine  Hellenes.  These  ancient  Pelasgi,  if  we  may  call  them 
so,  worshipped  spirits  or  demons  in  indefinitely  vast  numbers 
but  with  no  individual  names;  represented,  if  at  all,  by  em- 
blems or  symbols  very  rarely  in  human  bodily  form.  Of  these 
demons  of  calamity,  disease,  death,  madness;  of  fertility  and 
other  forms  of  beneficence,  there  were  "  thousands  upon  thou- 
sands, from  whom  man  can  never  escape  or  hide."  ^^ 

Men  had  become  tillers  of  the  ground.  Their  life  was  still 
precarious.  "  Their  food  depended  on  the  crops  of  one  tiny 
plot  of  ground.  All  the  while  they  knew  almost  nothing  of 
the  real  causes  that  made  crops  succeed  or  fail.  They  only 
felt  sure  it  was  a  matter  of  pollution,  or  unexpiated  defile- 
ment. It  is  this  state  of  things  that  explains  the  curious 
cruelty  of  agricultural  works,  v/hich  like  most  cruelty  had  its 
roots  in  terror,  terror  of  the  breach  of  taboo  —  the  For- 
bidden Thing.'' 

Neolithic  man,  with  his  new  discoveries  and  industries,  had 
given  new  hostages  to  fortune,  and  a  new  and  wider  scope  of 
application  to  the  old  doctrine  of  taboo  and  of  tribal  re- 
sponsibility. This  strengthened  the  hold  of  the  priest  or  ma- 
gician on  the  hopes,  fears,  and  faith  of  his  people.  The  law 
is  going  deeper  as  well  as  wider.     There  arises  an  individual 

10  6(5. 


"THE  DAWN  OF  CIVILIZATION  61 

feeling  of  pollution  and  of  the  need  of  expiation  which  will 
blaze  out  in  the  oldest  Greek  tragedies  as  almost  a  veritable 
sense  of  sin.  We  might  almost  say  that  a  sense  of  morality 
toward  the  spirit  world  is  now  appearing  in  a  religion  pre- 
viously almost  or  quite  unmoral.  We  may  easily  overesti- 
mate the  extent  and  power  of  the  change,  but  we  can  hardly 
be  mistaken  in  recognizing  its  dawn  and  the  vast  germinal 
possibilities  of  this  dim  feeling  or  conception. 

In  agriculture  and  throughout  nature,  seedtime  was  fol- 
lowed by  harvest,  fall,  and  winter's  gloom  and  death.  Then 
in  the  next  spring  there  was  a  return,  a  rebirth  or  a  resur- 
rection. If  the  seed  failed  to  come  up,  if  the  blade  withered 
or  was  blighted,  it  was  because  the  vegetation  spirit  or  demon 
had  failed  to  reappear  or  had  been  reborn  weak  or  sickly,  and 
all  this  because  some  one  had  broken  taboo,  had  touched  the 
forbidden  thing.  This  must  be  prevented  at  all  cost,  they 
must  help  the  spirit.  Hence  there  must  be  every  year  a  time 
of  purification,  or  renovation,  when  the  old  garments  and  uten- 
sils and  everything  which  could  carry  the  pollution  of  death 
were  cast  off  or  cleansed.^ ^ 

All  these  conclusions,  and  some  others  of  equal  importance 
to  which  we  will  return  later,  are  expressed  or  symbolized  in 
the  great  Dromena,  festivals,  mysteries,  or  whatever  you  may 
call  these  rites  of  pre-Homeric  Greece.  Then  for  a  time, 
they  are  partially,  though  never  totally,  eclipsed  by  the  bril- 
liant beauty  of  the  Olympian  religion  with  its  glorious  temples, 
statues,  and  other  works  of  art. 

There  was  vastly  more  vitality  in  the  ancient  crude  symbols 
and  chaos  of  conceptions  than  in  the  ordered  and  artistic 
Olympian  hierarchy  with  its  marvellous  rpnresentations  o^  the 
gods  in  human  or  superhuman  form  and  beauty.^ ^  Even  its 
art  and  Hterature  could  not  save  it.  It  had  lost  its  mysticism. 
The  old  Neolithic  religion,  handed  down  by  peasants  and 
artisans  reoccupied  the  field,  transformed  sometimes  almost 
beyond  recognition  like  the  Ugly  Duckling  of  the  fairy  tale. 

11  66 

12  64-66 


62  tHE  COMING  OF  MAN 

It  returned  triumphant  through  sheer  power  of  unlimited  vi- 
tahty  and  adaptability.  Plato  draws  his  finest  illustrations 
from  its  mysteries,  out  of  which,  also,  the  Greek  drama  arose. 
Paul  quotes  from  them  or  from  a  similar  stratum  of  belief. 

Some  of  the  many  sources  of  its  vitality  are  obvious.  It 
was  rooted  in  the  firm  conviction  of  the  existence  of  a  spirit- 
ual world  toward  and  into  which  its  every  rootlet  was  forcing 
its  way  and  from  which  it  drew  nourishment  and  power.  We 
might  better  change  the  illustration  and  say  that  it  was 
slowly  developing  a  spiritual  eye  which  peered  into  a  higher 
world  and  developed  in  keenness  and  clearness  of  vision  in 
response  to  the  higher  pulsations.  By  patient  experiment 
and  experience,  which  produced  a  hope  that  could  not  make 
ashamed  and  a  faith  in  which  hope  and  experiment  combined, 
it  was  feeling  its  way  into  spiritual  knowledge.  It  knew 
nothing  of  practical  science  or  of  material  cause  and  effect. 
But  its  world  pulsated  with  the  universal  life.  It  recognized 
the  law  of  forbidden  things  and  the  sure  penalty  of  law- 
breaking.  It  had  a  tribal  conscience  and  recognized  the  need 
of  purification.  It  had  the  promise,  at  least,  of  individual  con- 
science and  consciousness  of  sin. 

Its  symbol  was  the  mystery  which  lifted  only  a  corner 
of  the  veil  and  left  an  abundant  opportunity  for  wonder,  im- 
agination, thought,  and  mysticism,  which  was  entirely  lacking 
in  the  perfect  statue  and  the  finished  creed.  It  made  man, 
through  its  sympathetic  magic,  a  coworker  with  his  divinities 
or  demons  in  gaining  the  answer  to  an  intense  desire  or 
prayer  acted  by  all  the  members  of  the  community  with  all 
their  united  might,  the  utterance  of  his  whole  being  and  life, 
instead  of  expressed  merely  in  words.  Such  a  system  or  chaos 
overflows  with  sublime  possibilities. 

The  introduction  of  agriculture  had  produced  another  most 
important  change  in  religious  views  and  ritual.  In  tillage 
the  earth  brought  forth  and  gave  birth  to  the  crops  which 
furnished  their  chief  food  supply,  and  probably,  in  their  view, 
to  animals  and  men  also;  just  as  the  human  mother  gives 
birth  to  the  child.     Hence  there  was  a  wide-spread  belief  in 


"THE  DAWN  OF  CIVILIZA'TlON  63 

a  cult  of  an  earth  divinity,  of  course  female,  or  in  a  goddess  or 
demon  of  fertility.  She  is  sometimes  or  usually  accom- 
panied by  a  male  partner,  companion  or  son,  but  he  occupies 
a  lower  place. 

This  cult  of  the  goddess  seems  to  have  been  a  marked 
feature  of  Neolithic  religion. ^^  We  find  it  in  the  remains  of 
the  Minoan  period  in  Crete:  Isis  and  her  companion  god 
Osiris  were  prominent  in  Egypt.  The  cult  was  wide-spread 
throughout  Asia  Minor:  Diana,  or  better  Artemis  of  the  Ephe- 
sians,  Ma  in  Anatolia,  the  great  goddess  of  the  Hittites,  are 
a  few  examples.  Pumpelly  found  a  female  idol  at  Anau.  The 
cult  dots,  if  it  does  not  cover,  the  migration  route.  In  Greece 
we  find  Demeter,  and  in  "  Pelasgic  Athens  "  Athena  always 
held  the  highest  place.  We  find  deeply  buried  traces  of  a  simi- 
lar goddess  cult  in  most  parts  of  northern  Europe.  The  cult 
of  the  goddess  probably  belongs  to  the  close  of  the  Neolithic 
period,  as  the  belief  in  innumerable  nameless  demons  repre- 
sents the  early  Neolithic  or  Palaeolithic  stage.  Laugh  con- 
ceitedly, if  you  can  and  will,  at  these  "  superstitions  "  of  our 
benighted  ancestors.  They  were  permeated  with  an  intense 
vitality.  They  are  still  crude  in  form  and  will  be  refashioned 
and  better  expressed  as  man  grows  in  wisdom  and  reverence. 
The  substance  is  already  present;  the  elements  and  possibili- 
ties of  a  grand  religion.  It  is  a  growth  of  hundreds  of  mil- 
lennia. You  can  change  or  modify  or  reexpress  it.  You  can- 
not uproot  it.  It  has  become  imbedded  in  the  fibers  of  man's 
brain,  a  part  of  his  life-blood. 

Plutarch  seems  to  have  been  nearer  the  truth  than  some 
modern  observers  and  students  when  he  wrote  "  Pass  over 
the  earth,  you  may  discover  cities  without  walls,  without 
literature,  without  monarchs,  without  palaces  and  wealth; 
where  the  theater  and  school  are  unknown;  but  no  man  ever 
saw  a  city  without  temples  and  gods,  where  prayers  and  oaths 
and  oracles  and  sacrifices  were  not  used  for  obtaining  pardon 
or  averting  evil." 

13  ^Q.    70.    Chap.  V. 
55-  218. 


VI 
THE  RISE  OF  PERSONALITY 

NEOLITHIC  civilization  had  apparently  sprung  up  in 
more  or  less  compact  and  isolated  tribes  of  agri- 
culturists, where  life  v/as  simple  and  quiet,  and 
where  there  was  generally  comparative  equality  of  possession 
and  uniformity  of  Hfe.  Here  it  lasted  longest.  Its  typical 
development  went  on  somewhat  aside  from  the  great  routes  of 
trade  and  migration,  as  in  large  parts  of  France  and  England, 
in  Scandinavia  and  the  extensions  of  the  Danube  valley.  It 
rose  and  culminated  far  earlier  in  Asia  than  in  Europe. 

But  even  in  Europe  increase  of  wealth  and  difference  of 
power  and  condition,  trade,  commerce  and  the  spread  of  ideas, 
the  mingling  of  peoples  and  cultures  in  its  central  valley, 
above  all  the  increase  and  spread  of  knowledge,  diicovery  and 
initiative,  were  continually  undermining  tribal  custom  and 
control.     It  was  fast  becoming  outgrown. 

The  same  changes  had  gone  faster  and  farther  in  the 
great  thoroughfare  of  migration  and  trade  running  westward 
along  the  northern  face  of  the  Caucasus  Mountains  and  shores 
of  the  Caspian  and  Black  Seas  from  Central  Asia  into  the 
grasslands  of  southern  Russia.^  Here  isolation  was  impos- 
sible. Here  we  find  fortified  villages  when  they  had  hardly 
appeared  in  northern  Europe.  Agriculture  flourished,  but 
much  of  the  country  was  even  better  fitted  to  the  raising 
of  cattle  and  sheep.  Here  apparently  the  horse  had  been 
domesticated  not  far  from  2000  b.  c.  The  population  was 
mixed  and  diversified. 

Along  the  southern  borders  of  this  great  fertile  and  popu- 

^8i.  Chap.  IX. 

64 


THE  RISE  OF  PERSONALItT  65 

lous  region  were  cities  in  close  trade  communication  with  Crete 
and  later  with  Greece.  The  most  western  of  these  trading- 
posts  was  Troy.  The  Black  Sea  and  its  rivers  were  ancient 
trade-routes  carrying  northward  the  wares  and  ideas  of  more 
favored  and  advanced  southern  lands.  Southwestern  Russia 
and  the  Balkans  came  very  early  under  the  sway  of  Mediter- 
ranean stimuli  and  influences. 

Here  agriculture  and  cattle-raising  sprang  up  early.  Civil- 
ization progressed  rapidly,  and  the  cake  of  custom  had  less 
opportunity  to  harden.  There  was  far  less  uniformity,  isola- 
tion was  impossible,  tribal  characteristics  were  less  marked. 
There  were  wealth  and  inequality  of  possession.  Change  was 
comparatively  rapid.  Individual  leadership  and  initiative 
were  at  a  premium.  It  was  a  land  of  restless  adventurers  com- 
pared with  the  more  stolid  peasants  of  northern  Europe. 

Here  was  the  ancient  home  of  the  Aryans;  extending  far  to 
the  eastward,  its  northern  extent  is  still  uncertain.  A  com- 
mon language  was  used  all  over  its  wide  unbroken  area,  doubt- 
less with  many  dialects.  It  had  to  express  the  needs  and 
thoughts  of  many  conditions  and  cultures,  was  used  in  trade 
and  commerce.  Those  who  spoke  it  were  in  communication 
with  many  men,  cities  and  lands,  it  was  in  a  sense  cosmopoli- 
tan, flexible  and  adaptable.  Before  the  end  of  Neolithic  times 
its  sphere  of  influence  had  probably  reached  far  beyond  the 
borders  of  the  old  Aryan  homeland. 

Not  very  far  from  2000  b.  c,  the  people  were  swarming  out 
from  their  old  home.  The  eastern  Aryans  went  into  Persia 
and  on  into  India.  Aryan  names  soon  appear  in  Asia  Minor. 
The  western  Aryans  invaded  Greece  and  spread  over  Europe. 
We  have  an  excellent  picture  of  the  Achaean  leaders  in  Homer's 
chieftains.  They  were  fighters  and  adventurers,  boastful  and 
loud  mouthed,  running  over  with  animal  life  and  spirits,  great 
talkers  and  story-tellers  not  overhampered  by  respect  for 
truth,  good  mixers  and  magnetic  leaders.  They  hated  toil  and 
work.  These  adventurers  were  freebooters;  open,  generous, 
frank,  kindly  when  not  opposed,  rough  and  cruel  as  a  parcel 
of  schoolboys  when  angered. 


66  "THE  COMING  OF  MAN 

Their  coming  among  the  Neolithic  settlements  of  Greece 
must  have  been  like  the  arrival  of  a  party  of  cowboys  in  a 
community  of  pacificists.  They  ''  painted  the  town  red." 
Resistance  was  hopeless,  submission  usually  quick.  They 
probably  exacted  from  the  people  not  very  much  more  of 
toil  and  labor  than  had  been  demanded  before,  and  were 
excellent  watchdogs.  Their  heroes  married  the  daughters  of 
the  rulers  of  the  land  and  became  kings.  The  changes  were 
quick,  thorough  and  not  altogether  for  the  worse. 

These  roving  bands  of  emigrants  from  the  Aryan  home- 
land were  composed  mostly  of  the  young  and  vigorous.  They 
had  left  behind  them  the  old  men,  the  lawgivers  of  the  tribe, 
and  guardians  of  its  traditions.  They  had  broken  and  cast  off 
all  the  old  tribal  fetters  and  restraints  and  enjoyed  their  free- 
dom to  the  full.  Their  leader  was  a  young  adventurous 
fighter  like  themselves.  The  source  of  his  authority  was  his 
prowess  and  success  as  champion  and  ability  to  lead.  Dour 
gigantic  Ajax,  swift  and  athletic  Achilles,  and  shrewd  resource- 
ful Ulysses  listen  patiently  to  wise  wordy  old  Nestor,  and  do 
as  they  will.  Their  only  law  was  the  word  of  the  leader,  and 
his  power  depended  on  his  right  arm  and  the  loyalty  of  his 
followers. 

The  city  states,  which  sprang  up  somewhat  later  all  over 
Greece,  prospered  or  failed  largely  according  to  the  power, 
ability  and  wisdom  of  the  individual  irresponsible  ruler.  He 
is  the  outstanding  feature  and  characteristic  of  the  Bronze  and 
early  Iron  Ages,  and  loyalty  to  him  is  the  chief  virtue  of  his 
followers.  Tribal  rule  and  tribal  conscience  have  seemingly 
disappeared,  vanished  with  an  outgrown  past. 

They  had  left  the  mother-goddess  behind  in  the  homeland, 
very  possibly  even  there  her  cult  and  worship  had  long  since 
declined.  Their  conception  of  divinity  was  quite  naturally 
a  war  god  hurling  thunderbolts  or  wielding  a  magic  hammer. 
His  moral  endowments  were  of  secondary  importance.  The 
goddess  of  the  conquered  land  seems  often  to  have  been  mar- 
ried to  their  own  god.  They  were  exceedingly  liberal  in 
matters  of  theology,  and  freely  admitted  new  divinities  to 


"THE  RISE  OF  PERSON ALI'TT  67 

their  Olympian  council.  The  result  was  the  glorious  and 
scandalous  Olympian  religion.  In  the  end  the  religion  of 
the  ancient  mysteries  proved  to  have  more  vitality  and  ade- 
quacy. It  survived  in  the  writings  of  poets  and  philosophers, 
while  the  Olympian  religion  waned. 

Greek  civilization  was  undoubtedly  a  blend  of  Achaean  and 
ancient  autocthonous  Pelasgic  elements;  and  it  is  uncertain 
which  contribution  was  the  larger.  Is  it  mere  coincidence 
that  the  city-state  called  Pelasgic  Athens  always  maintain- 
ing the  cult  of  a  goddess  Athena,  struggling  toward  democracy, 
a  city  unsung  and  hardly  named  by  Homer,  was  the  chief  seat 
and  center  of  the  highest,  finest  and  best  thought  and  life 
of  Greece? 

A  very  similar  conquest  on  a  much  larger  scale  was  being 
carried  on  in  Northern  Europe  by  the  Celts  resembling  the 
Achseans  in  temper  and  spirit  as  if  they  were  twin-brothers. 
They  seem  tor  have  swarmed  out  still  earlier  and  in  greater 
numbers.  Before  the  close  of  the  Neolithic  period  we  find 
signs  of  their  culture  in  the  Rhine  valley.  During  the  Bronze 
Age  they  seem  to  have  overwhelmed  England  and  northern 
France.  They  conquered  Bohemia  and  parts  of  southern  Ger- 
many and  went  down  into  northern  Italy.  In  the  early  Iron 
Age  they  raided  still  farther,  but  were  pushed  back  finally 
by  the  Romans  in  the  south  and  the  Teutons  in  the  north 
and  ground  between  the  upper  and  the  nether  mill-stones. 

The  story  of  the  dawn  of  history  seems  to  be  mainly  a 
chronicle  of  similar  migrations,  raids,  invasions  and  conquests: 
every  new  invader  crowding  the  preceding  ruling  race  down 
into  the  mass  of  common  people.  This  results  in  new  blends 
and  variations  which  were  later  to  express  themselves  in  na- 
tional characteristics.  But  the  process  was  slow,  and  the  sub- 
jected people  were  usually  left  for  a  long  time  unchanged  in 
their  deeper  character  by  the  new  super-imposed  stratum.^ 

In  every  case  there  resulted  a  ruling  class  and  a  subject, 
half-enslaved  or  peasant  mass  holding  obstinately  to  their  be- 
liefs, customs  and  Mores  over  against  those  of  their  con- 

2  82.   83.   40, 


68  "THE  COMING  OF  MAN 

querors.  The  two  may  gradually  mingle  and  even  fuse,  or 
they  may  long  remain  as  distinct  as  oil  and  water.  The  con- 
servative mass  has  on  its  side  the  weight  of  numbers,  of  more 
rapid  increase,  of  endurance  and  stability.  In  the  end  it  will 
maintain  itself  and  win  recognition.  This  struggle  of  the  mass 
of  the  people  for  its  place  and  rights,  and  toward  a  real  and 
workable  democracy  seems  to  be  the  important  feature  of 
political  history. 

The  individual  played  a  very  subordinate  part  in  the  rise 
of  Neolithic  culture  and  civilization.  It  was  a  tribal  move- 
ment in  lock-step  and  there  could  be  no  straggling  from  the 
ranks.  There  was  uniformity  and  monotony.  Different  tribes 
differed  comparatively  little  from  one  another.  It  was  a 
stage  of  civilizing  the  savage  by  compelling  him  to  till  the 
ground,  common  to  all  civilized  peoples,  though  different  tribal 
units  may  have  advanced  with  different  degrees  of  rapidity 
according  to  innate  endowment  and  surrounding  conditions. 
It  was  a  great  tidal  wave  of  human  advance  impelled  by  world 
forces,  and  creeping  slowly  and  relentlessly  with  a  broad  and 
comparatively  even  front. 

In  the  Bronze  and  earlier  Iron  Ages  there  was  great  diver- 
sity. Every  people  or  city-state  tried  its  own  peculiar  experi- 
ment under  its  own  leader.  Egypt,  Greece,  different  parts  of 
Europe,  go  every  one  its  own  way  to  a  certain  extent;  and 
near  neighbors  may  differ  markedly.  We  are  living  not  in  the 
age  of  the  "  totem,"  but  of  the  "  hero  ":  ^  not  of  reactionary 
old  men  but  of  revolutionary,  adventurous  young  leaders  who 
care  little  for  the  past,  and  rule  under  new  conditions.  The 
experiment  is  largely  one  devised  or  shaped  by  the  individual 
leader,  and  its  trend  and  results  are  less  the  expression  of 
deep  and  universal  human  tendencies,  and  more  that  of  his 
individual  thought  and  will.  The  advance  or  deterioration 
depends  largely  upon  him  and  the  weight  of  responsibility 
begins  to  make  itself  felt.  The  advance,  if  it  be  so,  begins  to 
show  the  variety  and  uncertainties  of  modern  so-called  prog- 
ress.    It  is  more  rapid  but  less  sure  in  its  form  and  direction. 


"THE  RISE  OF  PERSONALItT  69 

All  the  time  the  great  problems  of  life  are  increasing  in  num- 
ber and  complexity  until  they  seem  insoluble. 

We  lose  our  way  in  this  strife  and  turmoil  which  seems  to 
have  no  direction  or  meaning.  But  one  fact  of  vast  impor- 
tance stands  out  clear  in  all  the  welter  and  confusion:  and 
that  is  the  rise  of  something  far  higher  than  mere  individuality, 
namely  personality.  Do  you  ask  "  What  is  personality?  " 
It  cannot  be  laid  bare  by  the  scalpel,  discovered  by  the 
microscope,  or  weighed  in  any  physical  balance.  It  is  more 
than  a  bundle  of  tropisms  or  instincts  or  even  a  seeing  mind. 
The  vocabulary  of  the  zoologist  seems  inadequate  to  express 
it  fully,  if  at  all.  It  seems  quite  new  and  unexpected,  but 
it  has  been  coming  ever  since  Palaeolithic  days, — or  perhaps 
far  earlier. 

It  is  suggested  in  Henley's  lines: 

''  It  matters  not  how  straight  the  gate, 
How  charged  with  punishments  the  scroll, 
I  am  the  master  of  my  fate: 
I  am  the  captain  of  my  soul."  ^ 


The  ship  is  heavily  freighted,  rolls  clumsily  in  a  stormy 
sea,  and  often  refuses  to  answer  the  helm.  The  crew,  and  he 
is  captain  and  crew  at  the  same  time,  is  always  ready  to 
mutiny  and  requires  a  firm  hand  and  stout  heart.  He  is  an 
adventurer  in  uncharted  waters,  sailing  to  a  remote  harbor. 
Will  he  make  port? 

He  is  responsible  to  himself  and  to  other  persons  for  the 
success  of  his  voyage.  If  he  fails  by  his  own  fault,  he  feels 
remorse,  not  merely  regret  but  a  new  feeling  of  which  he 
cannot  rid  himself.  He  has  rights  to  maintain  and  duties 
to  perform.  He  has  a  certain,  if  limited,  power  of  choice  and 
hence  of  freedom.  Above  all  he  must  guide  and  control  him- 
self lest  he  lose  his  position  and  become  slave  to  some  lower 
self,  for  an  enslaved  person  is  an  absurd  misnomer,  a  contra- 

*84.   56. 


70  "fHE  COMING  OF  MAN 

diction  of  terms.  The  depths  of  his  own  being  astonish  or 
awe  him.     All  this  he  knows,  and  can  forget  or  neglect. 

Most  of  all,  he  is  still  very  incompletely  personalized.  He 
is  on  the  way  to  a  fully  developed  personality.  As  ever  before 
his  possibilities  may  be  infinite,  but  his  realized  attainments 
on  this  new  plane  of  life  are  few  and  small.  Man  is  still 
coming,  he  has  not  yet  arrived, —  even  in  these  great  United 
States  of  America. 

Said  Huxley:  '^  Man  now  stands  as  on  a  mountain-top  far 
above  the  level  of  his  humble  fellows,  and  transfigured  from 
his  grosser  nature  by  reflecting  here  and  there  a  ray  from  the 
infinite  source  of  truth.  And  thoughtful  man  once  escaped 
from  the  blinding  influences  of  tradition  and  prejudice  will 
find  in  the  lowly  stock  whence  man  has  sprung  the  best 
evidence  of  the  splendor  of  his  capacities,  and  will  discern  in 
his  long  progress  through  the  past  a  reasonable  ground  of 
faith  in  his  attainment  of  a  nobler  future."  ^ 

The  air  on  the  mountain-top  is  rarefied  and  the  light  daz- 
zling; the  language  of  its  inhabitants  sounds  somewhat  foreign 
to  us.  We  leave  man  as  a  person  to  and  with  the  psychologist 
and  philosopher,  and  return  to  our  ''  humble  fellows  "  in  the 
valley,  where  we  are  more  at  home. 


VII 
THE  LOGIC  OF  EVOLUTION 

WE  cannot  fail  to  notice  that  life  is  continually  rising 
from  lower  to  higher  planes,  and  that  it  shows  new 
powers  and  new  meaning  from  stage  to  stage.  The 
upward  road  seems  to  pass  from  table-land  to  table-land,  and 
the  transition  to  be  a  sudden  and  rapid  ascent.  This  is  prob- 
ably not  the  case.  We  might  compare  these  transitions  to 
the  changes  at  the  melting  and  boiling  points  in  a  mass  of  ice. 
The  rise  of  temperature  may  be  continuous,  but  the  form  and 
behavior  of  the  mass  becomes  entirely  different  and  new  at 
certain  critical  points. 

The  progress  from  a  bacterium  to  an  amoeba  and  thence  to 
a  group  of  cells  is  great,  but  we  cannot  dwell  upon  it.  The 
second  stage  is  that  of  the  sacklike  coelenterate,  whose  cells 
are  arranged  in  two  layers.  It  has  a  digestive  cavity,  gains  a 
fair  amount  of  food,  uses  comparatively  little  for  fuel,  hence 
reproduces  rapidly.  All  the  surplus  goes  to  the  reproductive 
organs.  There  are  nervous  and  muscular  tissues,  and  some 
feeling  and  locomotion.  But  these  functions  play  a  very  small 
part  in  the  life  of  the  animal.  Temporary  survival  of  the 
individual,  existence  and  continuance  of  the  species  is  prac- 
tically all  it  asks. 

The  fiat  worm  shows  us  a  transition  to  something  higher. 
It  still  lives  to  eat  and  reproduce.  The  digestive  system  has 
improved,  the  reproductive  organs  are  exceedingly  highly 
developed  and  very  complex.  But  muscles,  or  rather  masses 
of  muscular  fibrils,  nerves  and  nerve-centers  and  sense  organs 
have  appeared.     The  animal  is  moving  and  feeling  its  way. 

Certain  results  of  this  change  are  apparent  in  the  highest 

71 


72  I'HE  COMING  OF  MAN 

worms,  the  annelids.  Here  well  marked  muscular  fibrils  line 
the  body-wall,  sheathe  the  intestine  and  enclose  the  perivisceral 
cavity.  The  digestive  system  is  fast  attaining  its  definite 
general  form,  though  it  will  improve  greatly  in  details.  The 
reproductive  system  receives  a  smaller  surplus  and  is  simpler. 
Circulatory,  excretory  and  respiratory  organs  have  arisen  in 
service  of  muscle.  Sensory  organs  pay,  and  are  continually 
stimulated  as  the  animal  glides  through  the  water.  They  and 
the  chief  ganglion  are  improving  rapidly.  We  have  been 
speaking  of  nerves  and  muscles,  we  ought  to  speak  of  one 
neuro-muscular  system.  Every  added  muscular  fiber  demands 
the  addition  of  a  nerve-fibril,  and  of  one  or  more  nerve-cells 
in  the  nervous  arc.  Every  improvement  of  the  sense-organs 
demands  and  stimulates  the  rise  of  new  cells  in  what  is  fast 
becoming  a  brain.  Muscle  is  the  leading  partner  and  drags 
or  pushes  all  the  organs  to  a  higher  stage. 

In  some  or  many  annelids  we  find  two  or  more  claw-like 
horny  teeth  at  the  mouth.  These  are  very  efficient  weapons. 
The  period  of  universal  peace  between  leading  forms  is  past, 
the  gladiatorial  struggle  has  begun,  a  quite  new  phase  of  Hfe. 
Survival  can  continue  only  through  exercise  of  the  muscles, 
strength  and  agility,  a  keen  lookout  of  the  sense-organs  and 
guidance  of  the  developing  brain.  The  annelid  represents  the 
culmination  of  millions  of  years  of  unceasing  experiments  of 
our  progressive  vermian  ancestors;  the  aberrant  forms  mark 
a  few  of  the  partial  successes.  The  failures,  and  they  seem 
almost  innumerable,  have  disappeared  and  left  no  trace. 

Certain  points  of  attachment  of  muscular  fibrils,  or  the 
whole  skin,  secrete  a  solid  support  or  defence;  a  skeleton  ap- 
pears. The  external  protective  skeleton  of  mollusks  was 
vastly  productive  of  ease,  comfort,  safety,  placid  enjoyment 
survival  and  success,  of  all  that  makes  life  worth  living  with 
stagnation  '^  thrown  in."  The  external,  chiefly  locomotive, 
skeleton  of  arthropods  was  simple,  easy  to  build,  admirably 
suited  to  small  animals,  light,  resistent,  useful  in  a  variety  of 
ways.  Arthropods  were  precocious  and  their  development  was 
rapid. 


rHE  LOGIC  OF  EVOLUTION  73 

The  internal,  almost  purely  locomotive  skeleton  of  verte- 
brates was  exceedingly  difficult  and  slow  of  development. 
It  required  a  long  series  of  none  too  successful  experiments 
before  it  was  completely  attained.  It  resulted  in  a  marvel- 
lously adapted  support  for  the  well  molded,  powerful  muscles 
of  large  animals,  giving  swiftness,  agility,  and  tireless  locomo- 
tion. Jaws  and  teeth  furnish  unequaled  weapons.  The  sense 
organs  are  large  and  keen,  adequate  to  great  speed  over  a 

wide  range.  The  nerve-cells  of  many  segments  are  drawn 
into  the  capacious  brain.  They  have  fulfilled  the  promises  of 
annehds. 

The  large  size  of  the  vertebrate  is  correlated  with  long  life, 
with  varied  but  oft-repeated  experiences  of  the  individual. 
He  forms  instincts;  he  has  at  least  the  promise  of  intelligence. 
The  lower  vertebrate  is  mainly  a  locomotive  engine  of  offensive 
warfare,  his  world  is  an  arena  of  fighting,  devouring  brutes, 
a  not  altogether  pleasant  spectacle.  But  we  find  plenty  of 
movement  and  numberless  experiments. 

The  amphibian  has  crawled  out  on  land;  a  poor,  clumsy 
crawling  animal,  whose  short  feeble  legs  can  scarcely  lift  it 
from  the  ground.  But  it  walks,  and  every  step  is  a  series 
of  muscular  movements  demanding  close  and  accurate  control 
in  special  nerve-centers,  while  the  direction  of  locomotion  is 
determined  by  the  brain  in  response  to  the  reports  of  the 
higher  sense-organs.  There  is  some  variety  in  the  use  of  the 
two  pair  of  appendages.  Somehow  the  brain,  the  great  cen- 
tral switchboard  of  the  nervous  system,  manages  to  distribute 
these  stimuli  to  the  proper  muscles  in  adequate  intensity.  Its 
problems  and  responsibihties  are  steadily  increasing.  The  ap- 
pendages lengthen  and  strengthen,  become  adapted  to  locomo- 
tion on  land  or  in  the  air;  the  internal  locomotive  skeleton  has 
been  practically  completed,  its  possibilities  pretty  well  ex- 
hausted;  reptiles,  birds  and  mammals  have  appeared. 

Reptiles  tried  a  vast  series  of  experiments  in  framing  a 
vertebrate  body.  Some  are  of  huge  bulk,  others  small.  The 
snakes  gave  up  the  appendages,  returned  to  the  primitive  writh- 
ing method  of  locomotion  and  carried  it  practically  to  perfec- 


74  "fHE  COMING  OF  MAN 

tion.  Some  reptiles  swam  with  paddles,  others  flew  with  bat- 
like wings.  Some  ran  on  four  legs  or  strode  on  two,  using  the 
front  pair  somewhat  Hke  hands.  They  became  at  home  on 
land,  in  water,  and  in  the  air.  They  conquered  and  possessed 
the  world  partly  by  brute  force,  partly  by  speed  and  agility. 
They  showed  the  possibilities  of  a  marvellously  developed  mus- 
cular system  guided  by  a  very  economically  constructed  brain. 

From  flat  worms  upward  progress  has  been  focused  chiefly 
on  the  muscular  system.  Its  development  has  dragged  with 
or  after  it  that  of  all  the  other  systems,  even  of  nerves,  sense- 
organs  and  brain.  Keen  sense-organs  have  been  a  great  asset 
but  mainly  as  a  part  of  the  steering  apparatus.  Thus  far 
the  race  has  been  to  the  swift  and  the  battle  to  the  strong,  as 
was  to  be  expected.  The  bird  carried  the  tendency  to  its 
logical  conclusion.  It  became  a  flying-machine;  and  this 
aerial  adaptation  has  left  its  stamp  on  every  organ  of  the  body. 
In  swiftness  of  locomotion,  in  keenness  of  sense  especially  of 
sight,  the  hawks  and  carnivorous  birds  hold  the  record. 

It  is  a  somewhat  disappointing  story.  Millions  of  years  of 
painful  struggle  and  combat,  and  infinite  experiment,  and  the 
result  is  something  less  efficient  than  an  automobile  with  eyes 
instead  of  lamps  or  an  aeroplane  careering  through  the  air. 
It  reads  like  Falstaff's  bill  at  the  inn.  We  say:  "  One  half- 
penny worth  of  bread  to  this  intolerable  deal  of  sack!  "  If 
movement  was  all  we  wanted,  there  was  plenty  in  the  delirious 
electrons. 

There  is  nothing  particularly  striking  or  interesting  in  prim- 
itive mammals.  In  breadth  of  experiment,  in  adaptation  and 
general  development  they  seem  to  lag  behind  birds  and  rep- 
tiles. They  are  certainly  not  precocious.  Their  energy  of 
evolution  seems  to  be  turned  aside,  drawn  off,  in  some  direction 
hard  to  follow.  They  have  the  advantage  over  reptiles  of 
maintaining  a  constant  comparatively  high  temperature  of  the 
body.  This  stimulated  the  activity  and  development  of  the 
organs  somewhat  in  proportion  to  the  complexity  and  in- 
stability of  their  chemical  composition,  especially  of  the  proto- 


THE  LOGIC  OF  EVOLUnON  75 

plasmic  nerve-centers  and  glands.  But  birds  have  a  still 
higher  temperature. 

We  have  already  seen  that  the  development  of  the  neuro- 
muscular system,  the  lengthening  of  the  embryonic  period  and 
accompanying  increase  in  size  of  the  eggs  have  greatly 
diminished  their  number  and  made  the  care  of  eggs  and  young 
of  an  importance  which  cannot  be  overestimated.  The  bird 
deposits  its  eggs  in  a  nest ;  in  all  but  the  very  lowest  mammals 
the  mother  carries  them  in  her  body. 

The  period  of  gestation  and  infancy  is  continually  lengthen- 
ing and  the  strain  on  the  female  increases  correspondingly.^ 
Something  pointing  toward  or  approaching  family  life  ap- 
pears far  down  in  the  history  of  placental  mammals.  The 
chief  instincts  and  the  dawning  intelligence  seem  to  center 
around  the  young.  The  plays  of  lower  mammals  educate 
both  mother  and  offspring. 

The  earliest  of  even  the  placental  mammals  were  apparently 
comparatively  stupid.  But  care  of  young  and  the  continual 
harrying  by  their  reptilian  overlords  was  a  school  of  severe 
but  steady  and  sure  training.  Says  Lull  of  the  ''  archaic  " 
mammals:  "  Their  brain  was  singularly  old-fashioned,  gen- 
erally small,  but  always  relatively  undeveloped  in  comparison 
with  that  of  modernized  mammals  of  equivalent  bulk,  espe- 
cially in  the  part  wherein  the  intelligence  lay.  Hence  it  is 
not  surprising  that  the  career  of  these  forms  was  brief  and 
that  with  rare  exceptions  they  have  suffered  racial  death  and 
vanished  as  utterly  as  did  the  dinosaurs  before  them."  ^ 

Brain  and  intelligence  are  rising  to  leadership  in  the  neuro- 
muscular partnership.  The  dominance  of  muscular  bulk,  ar- 
rangement and  power,  even  of  weapons  of  offence  or  defence, 
is  beginning  to  pass  away.  Everything  points  toward  a  new 
and  thorough  revolution.  All  our  "  modernized  "  mammals 
possess  some  or  considerable  intelligence  and  learn  by  expe- 
rience.   They  are  educable. 

2  H.  549. 


76  fHE  COMING  OF  MAN 

But  steady  and  rapid  development  of  brain  and  thought  is 
emphasized  and  made  supreme  in  one  line,  that  of  the  primates. 
We  need  not  repeat  their  history.  They  were  apparently  de- 
feated forms  kept  in  order  and  confined  to  their  arboreal  ref- 
uge by  stronger  competitors.  The  effects  of  this  training,  the 
use  of  hand  and  eye  in  arboreal  life,  have  already  been  em- 
phasized; they  appear  in  the  systems  of  manual  training  in 
our  schools  to-day.  The  millennia  of  primate  training  in  the 
school  of  arboreal  life  were  not  wasted. 

The  comparatively  weak  and  defenceless  anthropoid  de- 
scended from  the  trees,  and  pitted  his  few  and  feeble  wits 
against  brute  strength  and  cosmic  force.  The  result  of  the 
struggle  was  man.  His  weakness  compelled  him  to  be  watch- 
ful and  wary,  cautious,  prying,  curious.  It  compelled  him  to 
eke  out  his  feeble  muscles  by  the  discovery,  manufacture  and 
use  of  tools.  Physically  he  is  tough,  enduring,  adaptable;  a 
cosmopolitan  species ;  mentally  he  is  growing  keen,  observing, 
thoughtful.  There  is  something  human  about  him,  but  some- 
thing more  is  needed  to  make  him  genuine  man. 

"  Nature,"  says  Osborn,  "  deals  in  transitions  rather  than 
in  sharp  lines."  We  studied  the  rise  of  the  discovery  and 
recognition  of  spirit,  and  hence  of  religion,  in  Palseolithic  man; 
of  the  rapid  rise  of  morals  to  supremacy  in  Neolithic  days; 
and  of  personality  in  the  Bronze  epoch.  The  exact  date  is  of 
small  importance.  Those  powers  became  prominent  at  those 
times.  A  more  careful  and  accurate  study  would  place  their 
emergence  earlier;  their  "  embryonic  development  "  was  vastly 
more  ancient.  The  fact  to  be  emphasized  is  that  it  is  just 
those  qualities  which  have  raised  him  to  the  mountain  top 
far  above  his  humble  fellows,"  have  transfigured  him;  that 
he  is  incurably  moral  and  religious.  If  he  neglects  or  stifles 
them,  he  degenerates  into  something  worse  than  a  beast.  To 
call  some  men  beasts  is  to  slander  lower  animals. 

Morals  arose  under  the  stimulus  of  social  environment  and 
neighborly  pressure:  religion  through  the  dread  and  fear  of 
invisible  buffeting  pov/ers.  But  in  describing  the  school  we 
must  not  forget  the  pupil.     There  can  be  no  genuine  morality 


"THE  LOGIC  OF  EVOLUTION  77 

and  religion  except  of  persons,  possessing  a  certain  amount  of 
freedom  of  choice  and  hence  of  responsibihty,  feeling  within 
themselves  the  categorical  imperative  of  duty,  and  responding 
to  a  "  power,  not  ourselves,  which  makes  for  righteousness." 
Could  man  have  ever  discovered  morals  and  religion,  if  he  had 
not  already  felt  within  himself  the  stirrings  of  personality  how- 
ever dimly  recognized?  The  present  high-water  mark  of 
evolution  is  a  very  incomplete  personality  with  its  immeas- 
urable possibilities  and  promises. 

The  stages  in  human  evolution  are  well  marked  and  distinct. 
The  first  is  the  protozoan  stage  of  single  cells  or  colonies  with 
no  tissues  or  organs.  Second  is  the  almost  vegetative  stage 
when  digestion  and  reproduction  are  the  dominant  functions. 
The  third  is  the  muscular  or  locomotive  stage  when  strength, 
swiftness  and  agility,  keen  sense-organs  and  weapons  of  of- 
fence and  defence  seem  to  be  the  goal  of  evolution.  Fourth 
comes  the  dominance  of  keenness  of  perception  and  the  rise 
of  inteUigence.  This,  however,  ought  properly  to  be  considered 
as  a  transition  between  the  dominance  of  brute  force  and  weap- 
ons and  the  complete  rule  of  mind  expressed  in  person- 
ality. 

Every  stage  ushers  in  something  new  and  unexpected. 
Jelly-fish,  reptile  or  bird,  and  man  live  very  different  lives, 
every  one  in  a  world  of  its  own.  Is  it  any  exaggeration  to 
speak  of  "  creative  evolution "?  Yet  the  new  stage  was 
somehow  and  somewhere,  concealed  in  the  old;  was  prophesied 
or  foreshadowed  by  it,  is  in  a  sense  its  only  logical  outcome. 
It  is  just  what  we  ought  to  have  foreseen  and  expected. 

The  stages  of  digestion,  of  locomotion  and  of  personality 
may  be  compared  to  three  great  dynasties  in  the  history  of 
the  animal  kingdom.  Every  function  or  power  holds  the  throne 
as  long  as  it  is  capable  of  improvement  more  rapid  and 
profitable  than  that  of  any  other  system.  A  digestive  sys- 
tem always  remains  comparatively  simple;  a  sack  or  tube 
with  a  certain  number  of  glands  is  all  that  is  needed.  Its  use 
is  limited,  its  possibilities  are  soon  exhausted. 

Muscle  and  skeleton  are  far  more  complex,  capable  of  great 


78  "THE  COMING  OF  MAN 

variety  in  amount,  form,  structure  and  grouping.  Their 
capacities  for  experiment  and  improvement  are  many,  great 
and  not  easily  exhausted.  The  dynasty  held  the  throne  for 
ages.  The  era  of  personality  has  only  begun.  We  know  not 
what  we  shall  be.  But  the  possibilities  of  mental  evolution 
are  unlimited;  they  may  be  infinite.  The  dynasty  of  person- 
ality is  secure  and  permanent.  No  other  system  or  power  in 
the  body  can  dispute  its  place  and  right. 

Every  lower  dynasty  needed,  stimulated,  and  thus  ushered 
in  the  reign  of  the  next  higher  power;  and  then  became  sub- 
servient to  it.^  Every  higher  power  begins  its  career  as  serv- 
ant of  the  lower;  then  evolution  becomes  revolution,  and  the 
yoke  of  the  lower  is  thrown  off.  The  reign  and  dominance 
of  the  higher  does  not  stop  or  hamper  the  development  of  the 
lower  function;  it  maintains  and  improves  it,  while  it  con- 
trols and  may  limit  it.  The  digestive  system  attains  its  high- 
est development  not  during  its  period  of  supremacy,  but  in 
its  service  of  muscle  and  brain. 

The  same  is  true  of  the  muscles.  They  are  not  as  bulky 
and  powerful  in  man  as  in  many  lower  animals.  But  they 
are  numerous,  complex  and  varied.  Of  course,  all  our  mus- 
cles have  their  place  and  use.  But  man's  chief  advantage  lies 
not  in  the  size  of  his  heavy  fundamental  muscles  of  back  and 
shoulder  or  thigh,  but  in  the  fine  accessory  muscles  of  his 
fingers  guided  by  the  exceedingly  complex  accessory  brain- 
centers.  These  contribute  the  fine  complex  movements.  An 
ape  would  make  hard  work  of  playing  a  violin.  It  is  hardly 
accurate  to  speak  of  "  arrest  of  the  body  "  in  man,  though  its 
day  of  supremacy  is  past.  It  becomes  continually  finer,  bet- 
ter adapted  to  higher  uses  and  nobler  ends  discovered  by  the 
thinking  brain. 

Yet,  outside  of  certain  centers  in  the  brain,  the  organ  of 
mind,  the  bodily  changes  between  higher  apes  and  man  are 
few  and  hardly  noticeable.  Physically  man  remains  one 
cosmopolitan  species  under  all  stimuli  to  variation.  His  in- 
telligence has  increased  by  leaps  and  bounds.     Whether  his 

3  T.  57. 


"tHE  LOGIC  OF  EVOLVriON  79 

moral  development  has  kept  pace  with  his  intellectual  is,  we 
hope,  an  open  question. 

As  every  higher  power  was  needed  for  the  complete  use 
and  development  of  the  lower,  the  sequence  of  dynasties  was 
quite  natural  and  logical.  The  higher  ought  and  had  to  arise 
except  where  there  was  arrest  or  failure  of  development.  The 
only  logical  goal  of  even  zoophytic  development  was  mind, 
and  the  worm  foreshadowed  the  coming  of  man.  All  these 
powers  are  potentially  in  the  amoeba,  and  his  potentialities, 
not  his  attainments,  are  his  best  assets  and  highest  values. 
Their  worth  can  be  determined  only  when  they  are  unfolded 
or  actually  realized.  The  lower  stage  is  incomplete,  conceals 
far  more  than  it  reveals.  It  can  be  appreciated  and  properly 
valued  only  in  the  light  of  the  higher,  which  reveals  its  mean- 
ing and  to  which  it  is  a  stepping-stone.  "  Origins  prove  noth- 
ing," as  William  James  said.  The  finished  statue,  not  the 
rough-hewn  block  tells  the  story. 

The  lower  organ  or  function  once  firmly  established  and 
supreme  in  the  body  does  not  readily  and  easily  yield  its 
control  and  gracefully  abdicate  in  favor  of  the  higher  power 
of  greater  possibilities.  There  is  always  a  struggle  for  su- 
premacy between  the  lower  and  older,  and  the  younger  and 
better.  The  final  revolution  succeeds  only  in  the  face 
of  bitter  opposition.  The  struggle  is  anything  but  brief,  we 
always  ought  to  carry  all  the  good,  we  must  carry  much  that 
must  be  outgrown,  into  the  future.  The  old  dynasty  must  not 
be  banished  as  a  whole  but  assimilated  in  due  subordination 
to  the  higher.  Here  is  the  rub.  Hence  many  or  most  fail 
altogether  to  attempt  the  revolution;  never  break  loose  from 
the  old,  outworn,  motives,  habits  and  modes  of  life;  remain 
permanently  on  the  lower  plane. 

Man  and  animals  can  at  least  attempt  to  reverse  this  nat- 
ural and  logical  sequence  of  dominant  functions,  and  exploit 
in  the  service  of  the  lower  whatever  of  the  higher  has  been 
attained  by  their  progressive  ancestors.  The  free-moving 
form  can  become  sessile  or  parasitic.  This  spells  degenera- 
tion of  all  organs,  except  the  reproductive,  or  more  usually 


8o  "fHE  COMING  OF  MAN 

extinction;  the  sacrifice  of  the  higher  with  Httle  permanent 
gain  and  usually  loss  to  the  lower.  In  higher  forms  of  ani- 
mals, degeneration,  as  a  rule,  does  not  result  in  existence  in 
meaner  form  or  on  a  lower  plane,  but  comparatively  quick  ex- 
tinction. 

If  we  are  convinced  that  this  sequence  of  dominant  func- 
tions is  a  fact,  that  always  in  the  successive  ancestral  stages 
leading  from  amoeba  to  man,  higher  and  higher  functions  have 
risen  to  dominance;  that  attempts  to  reverse  the  sequence 
have  ended  in  failure  and,  as  a  rule,  in  extinction;  we  shall 
be  convinced  also  that  future  man  will  be  more  and  more  com- 
pletely controlled  by  the  highest  powers  and  ends  toward  which 
this  sequence  points.  We  shall  recognize  that  our  business 
is  the  enthronement  of  rightness  and  righteous  personality 
and  that  all  else  is  of  secondary  importance;  that  we  live  not 
in  a  gladiatorial  or  primarily  economic,  but  in  a  moral  and  re- 
ligious world  befitting  man.  Rightness  of  will  and  effort  is 
the  provisional  goal  of  human  effort  and  progress.  This  in- 
volves not  so  much  the  remaking  of  surrounding  conditions 
as  the  remaking  of  man  himself. 

But  man  is  not  pure  spirit,  and  the  past  lives  in  him.  The 
tiger  refuses  to  die,  and  the  ape  is  immortal.  His  higher 
powers  of  memory,  association  and  imagination,  and  the  burn- 
ing focus  of  attention,  strengthen  the  hold  of  appetites  and 
gratifications  and  future  rewards  and  punishments  are  as 
if  nonexistent.  Every  upward  step  in  attainment  of  comfort 
in  art  and  in  science,  every  new  discovery  opens  new  fields 
not  of  carefree  enjoyment  but  of  struggle. 

It  is  a  struggle  not  so  much  for  existence  as  for  life.  Ape- 
man  descended  from  the  trees  to  give  battle  to  the  hostile 
powers  of  the  animal  kingdom  and  the  natural  world.  He 
has  overcome  his  competitors  and  bends  the  forces  of  nature 
to  his  will.  Now  he  is  his  own  worst  enemy.  The  king  is  in 
rebellion  against  the  king,  and  abdication  is  impossible  save 
by  suicide.     Rex  regis  rebelUs. 

We  have  noticed  that  higher  mammals  are  educable  and 
glanced  at  the  graded  school  of  training  of  primates  and  man. 


rHE  LOGIC  OF  EVOLUTION  81 

Is  the  chief  characteristic  of  protoplasm  its  educability? 
Huxley  has  told  us  in  a  remarkably  brilliant  and  sane  essay 
that  Nature  is  the  great  educator,  and  framed  her  bill  of 
compulsory  education  long  before  man  arrived  on  the  globe. 
Life  and  experience  are  the  great  teachers,  and  the  world  is 
the  school  of  this  grand  system  from  which  we  are  never 
graduated.  He  says:  "  That  man,  I  think,  has  had  a  liberal 
education  who  has  been  so  trained  in  youth  that  his  body  is 
the  willing  servant  of  his  will,  and  does  with  ease  and  pleas- 
ure all  the  work  that,  as  a  mechanism,  it  is  capable  of;  whose 
intellect  is  a  clear  cold  logic  engine  with  all  its  parts  of 
equal  strength  and  in  smooth  working  order,  ready  like  a 
steam  engine  to  be  turned  to  any  kind  of  work,  and  spin  the 
gossamers  as  well  as  forge  the  anchors  of  the  mind;  whose 
mind  is  stored  with  a  knowledge  of  the  great  and  funda- 
mental truths  of  Nature  and  of  the  laws  of  her  operations; 
one  who,  no  stunted  ascetic,  is  full  of  life  and  fire,  but  whose 
passions  are  trained  to  come  to  heel  by  a  vigorous  will,  the 
servant  of  a  tender  conscience;  who  has  learned  to  love  all 
beauty,  whether  of  Nature  or  of  art,  to  hate  all  vileness,  and 
to  respect  others  as  himself.  Such  a  man,  and  no  other,  I 
conceive,  has  had  a  liberal  education,  for  he  is  as  completely 
as  a  man  can  be  in  harmony  with  Nature.  He  will  make  the 
best  of  her,  and  she  of  him.  They  will  get  on  together  rarely, 
she  as  his  ever  beneficent  mother,  he  as  her  mouth-piece,  her 
conscious  self,  her  minister  and  interpreter.  Education  has 
two  great  ends  to  which  everything  else  must  be  subordinated. 
The  one  of  these  is  to  increase  knowledge;  the  other  is  to  de- 
velop the  love  of  right  and  the  hatred  of  wrong.  With  wis- 
dom and  uprightness  a  nation  can  make  its  way  worthily,  and 
beauty  will  follow  in  the  footsteps  of  the  two,  even  if  she  be 
not  specially  invited."  ^. 

Future  generations  will  care  little  about  the  number  of  our 
automobiles,  aeroplanes  and  telephones  or  of  stories  in  our 
sky-scrapers,  for  the  size  of  our  cities,  ships  and  fortunes, 
the  number  of  horse-power  developed  from  our  rivers  and 


82  THE  COMING  OF  MAN 

coal-fields.  They  will  regard  with  some  wonder  and  pity  the 
crudeness  of  our  laws  and  institutions.  They  will  smile  at 
our  systems  of  science  and  philsophy,  as  we  smile  at  those  of 
past  centuries.  They  will  ask:  ''  What  permanent  contri- 
bution did  your  age  and  nation  make  to  human  life  and  prog- 
ress, and  to  the  development  of  a  higher  and  better  per- 
sonality and  humanity?  "  Our  answer  to  this  question  will 
fix  our  place  in  history.  By  it  we  shall  be  judged,  and  justi- 
fied or  condemned.  Shall  we  be  remembered  with  little  Judea 
and  Greece  or  be  forgotten  gladly  like  great  Assyria  and  other 
exploiters? 


VIII 
NATURE  AND  MAN 

PERSONALITY  marks  the  present  high-water  mark  of 
a  flood  of  life  sweeping  steadily  onward.  Man  has  not 
yet  arrived,  very  possibly  he  never  will.  He  is  com- 
ing. Man  represents  the  apical  bud,  the  growing  point,  of 
the  luxuriantly  branching  tree  of  animal  life.  But  most  of 
its  branches  bend  downward,  a  host  have  died. 

The  meaning  of  evolution  is  to  be  sought  in  the  direction 
of  its  tendencies  expressed  and  partially  realized  in  its  high- 
est forms,  not  in  bacterium  or  protozoan.  '^  Origins  prove 
nothing."  Says  Bergson:  "A  perfect  definition  applies  only 
to  a  completed  reality;  now  vital  properties  are  never  com- 
pletely realized,  though  always  on  the  way  to  become  so. 
They  are  not  so  much  states  as  tendencies."  ^  Life  is  dynamic, 
not  static,  it  is  always  changing,  "  doing  things." 

We  have  paid  no  attention  to  the  vegetable  world  or  to 
the  inorganic  realm  of  chemistry  and  physics.  In  the  great 
universe,  man  is  quantitively  hardly  more  than  an  atom,  a 
''  thinking  reed."  His  strength  has  always  grown  by  hard 
exercise  and  daily  use  just  because  of  his  weakness  and  de- 
fencelessness.  We  live  in  a  universe  of  whirling,  seething 
forces;  at  the  same  time  universe  of  order  and  law.  Human 
life  has  a  quality  value  and  worth  distinct  from  and  superior 
to  them  all.  It  stands  out  sharply  outlined  against  the  back- 
ground of  Nature.  Life  is  a  guiding,  directing,  controlling 
power.  Where  is  the  throne  or  hiding-place  of  this  elusive 
force? 

We  begin  with  the  amoeba.    Where  is  the  seat  and  what 

83 


84  I'HE  COMING  OF  MAN 


the  nature  of  its  control  of  its  parts?  What  determines 
"  diminution  of  surface-tension  "  or  the  contractihty  of  the 
ectoplasm  in  the  protrusion  of  a  pseudopodium;  and  what  re- 
verses the  process  in  its  withdrawal?  What  is  ^'  responsible  " 
for  the  cooperation  of  fibers,  granules  and  other  particles  in 
its  momentary  hfe?  Control  is  a  fact;  but  we  cannot  explain 
it. 

Why  do  the  separated  cells  of  a  pulverized  and  sifted  calc- 
sponge  recombine  and  rearrange  themselves  in  the  old  shape 
and  form,?  There  is  energy  of  guidance  and  control  hover- 
ing over  and  immanent  in  the  multitude  of  cells.  More  we 
dare  not  say.^ 

In  the  development  and  growth  of  the  bones  of  mammals, 
in  our  thigh-bone  for  instance,  what  controls  and  directs  the 
work  of  the  myriad  of  osteoblasts  and  osteoclasts  continually 
adding  material  to  the  ends  of  the  terminal  knobs  or  condyles, 
and  gnawing  it  away  along  their  lower  surface,  changing 
what  had  been  a  knob  into  a  part  of  the  shaft?  The  rival 
hosts  cooperate  in  fashioning  and  lengthening  the  bone  as  the 
artist  shapes  a  model,  adding  clay  here,  scraping  it  off  there. 
Such  miracles  are  being  performed  in  and  around  us  every 
moment.  We  are  too  busy  to  notice  them,  much  more  to 
ever  think  of  them. 

What  combines  the  working  of  all  the  organs  of  the  body, 
every  one  doing  its  own  share  and  amount  of  the  work?  Seek 
its  seat  in  the  nervous  system,  if  you  will.  But  as  Bergson 
says:  '' A  nervous  system  with  neurones  placed  end  to  end 
in  such  a  wise  that,  at  the  extremity  of  each,  manifold  ways 
open  in  which  manifold  questions  present  themselves  is  a 
veritable  reservoir  of  indetermination."  Where  is  the  oper- 
ator for  the  great  telephonic  switch-board?  '^  The  role  of 
life  is  to  insert  some  indetermination  into  matter."  ^  We  are 
searching  for  a  seat  of  control. 

These  strange  substances,  hormones,  produced  at  one  point, 
set  free  under  some  stimulus,  traversing  the  body  like  tor- 

-Qo.  go. 
3  1.  126. 


NA'TURE  AND  MAN  85 

pedoes,  exploding  only  in  some  particular,  often  remote  tissue, 
and  producing  a  needed  result,  only  add  to  our  amazed  per- 
plexity instead  of  relieving  it.  Mr.  Darwin  once  said  that 
the  sight  of  a  peacock's  tail  made  him  sick.  Most  of  us  are 
less  sensitive. 

An  army  is  far  more  than  a  mob  of  individuals;  it  is  in- 
dividuals plus,  or  in  a  very  real  sense  multiplied  by,  discipline, 
organization,  command,  authority.  A  republic  is  not  merely 
square  miles  of  territory  and  millions  of  inhabitants;  it  is 
these  and  organization  through  and  by  a  central  government. 
The  state  may  be  an  abstraction  but  it  is  very  real  one, 
against  which  it  is  fatal  to  rebel.  It  can  condemn  the  rebel; 
say  to  him:  go  and  be  hanged,  and  he  straightway  mounts  the 
scaffold.  Otherwise  it  is  a  poor  contemptible  state.  Anal- 
ogies may  suggest,  though  they  prove  nothing. 

Said  Whitman  in  a  very  interesting  article  on  the  ''  Inade- 
quacy of  the  Cell-Theory  ":  "That  organization  precedes  cell- 
formation  and  regulates  it,  rather  than  the  reverse,  is  a  con- 
clusion that  forces  itself  upon  us  from  many  sides."  '^  Years 
ago  Huxley  wrote  in  his  vigorous  English:  ''They  (the  cells) 
are  no  more  the  producers  of  the  vital  phenomena  than  the 
shells  scattered  along  the  sea-beach  are  the  instruments  by 
which  the  gravitative  force  of  the  moon  acts  upon  the  ocean. 
Like  these,  the  cells  mark  only  where  the  vital  tides  have 
been,  and  how  they  have  acted  " —  possibly  a  somewhat  ex- 
treme statement  of  a  truth  demanding  emphasis. 

The  development  of  every  fertilized  germ-cell  into  an  adult, 
introduces  the  same  problem  of  directivity.  Says  Wilson: 
''  What  Hes  beyond  our  reach  at  present,  as  Driesch  has  very 
ably  urged,  is  to  explain  the  orderly  rhythm  of  development 
—  the  coordinary  power  that  guides  development  to  its  pre- 
destined end.  We  are  logically  compelled  to  refer  the  power 
to  the  inherent  organization  of  the  germ,  but  we  neither  know 
nor  can  conceive  what  that  organization  is."  ^  Again,  "  The 
cells  are  local  centers  of  a  formative  power  pervading  the 

*  103. 

^104:59.  and  432. 


86  THE  COMING  OF  MAN 

growing  mass  as  a  whole,  and  the  physiological  autonomy  of 
the  cells  falls  into  the  background." 

If  we  were  not  altogether  wrong  in  the  conclusion  of  our 
last  chapter  that  the  whole  process  of  evolution  bears  all 
the  marks  of  a  certain  natural  logic,  if  there  is  clearly  direction 
in  the  current  of  life,  there  must  be  here  also  some  guiding, 
controlling  energy  above  or  behind  the  competing  individuals 
and  groups.  A  river  forces  its  way  through  barriers  and 
seems  to  make  its  own  channel.  Yet  the  lines  of  the  river 
system  are  determined  in  the  end  by  the  natural  physical  and 
geological  features  of  its  drainage-basin.  How  far  is  the 
course  of  the  current  of  evolution  determined  or  modified  by 
surrounding  conditions,  by  Nature,  how  far  by  inherent  ten- 
dencies? 

The  courses  of  the  different  balls  in  a  charge  of  grape- 
shot  fired  from  a  cannon  are  evidently  due  to  two  sets  of 
forces  —  1.  their  initial  velocity  and  the  direction  of  aim, 
2.  the  deflecting  power  of  resisting  objects  or  forces  —  or  the 
different  balls  might  roll  rapidly  down  a  steep  mountain  side. 
In  the  first  case  velocity  and  direction  of  course  would  be 
determined  largely  by  initial  impulse;  in  the  last  by  the  at- 
traction of  the  earth  and  by  the  inequalities  of  its  surface. 
If  we  lay  great  weight  on  initial  tendencies,  inherent  in  the 
germ,  we  shall  lay  less  stress  on  the  guidance  and  control  of 
Natural  Selection;  if  the  directive  tendency  of  the  germ  is  small 
or  weak,  the  burden  and  '^  responsibility  "  of  natural  selec- 
tion must  increase  in  similar  proportion. 

Years  ago  the  botanist  Nageli  propounded  an  ingenious  and 
elaborate  theory  of  evolution,  as  dependent  almost  entirely  on 
inherent  initial  tendency.  Natural  selection  played  a  very 
subordinate  part.     His  theory  seems  one-sided. 

Let  us  glance  at  the  view  of  an  extreme,  perhaps  somewhat 
old-fashioned  neo-Darwinian.  The  seat  and  center  of  the 
controlling  energy  lies  in  the  continuous  chain  of  germ-cells 
stretching  from  protozoan  to  man ;  always  buried  and  shielded 
deep  in  the  body  of  the  parent  beyond  the  reach  of  external 
agencies  or  the  habits  and  acts  of  their  bearers,  except  in  so 


NA'TURE  AND  MAN  87 

far  as  these  may  effect  the  general  health  and  nourishment 
of  the  whole  germ-cell  or  of  some  of  its  particles  in  a  general 
way.  Variation  comes  about  through  the  shuffling  and  deal- 
ing of  the  granules  in  connection  with  the  maturing  and  con- 
jugation of  the  germ-cells.  Its  direction  is  not  affected  by  en- 
vironment or  by  habits  and  behavior  of  the  parent. 

The  variations  which  actually  arise  may  be  entirely  unde- 
termined^ perhaps  in  all  directions  equally.  Of  these  radiat- 
ing individuals  natural  selection  allows  some  to  live  and  kills 
off  the  rest,  and  thus  determines  the  direction  of  evolution 
of  the  species. 

If  the  variation  in  such  a  series  of  generations  is  mostly 
along  one  line  or  in  only  a  few  directions,  it  is  guided  more  or 
mostly  by  the  tendencies  of  the  germ-cells,  and  the  work  of 
natural  selection  is  correspondingly  lightened. 

Says  the  neo-Lamarckian:  ''The  animal  body  is  one  and 
control  is  one  pervading  the  body  and  all  its  cells,  even 
germ-cells  must  be  to  some  extent,  at  least,  included  under  this 
control.  The  germ-cells  cannot  have  that  independent  and 
exclusive  autonomy  postulated  by  the  neo-Darwinian. 
Bcdily  variations  cannot  go  on  without  producing  correspond- 
ing changes  in  the  germ-cells,  in  some  degree."  How  this 
energy  reaches  the  germ-cells  is  no  clearer  than  how  osteo- 
blasts and  osteoclasts  are  controlled,  or  how  the  arrangement 
of  cells  in  an  embryo  is  brought  about.  The  fact  of  control 
is  a  different  matter  from  the  explanation  of  how  it  is  brought 
about. 

Both  schools  are  beginning  to  see  that  each  holds  certain 
points  which  the  other  would  like  to  see  fully  proven;  each 
has  its  difficulties  and  hmitations.  A  compromise  or  higher 
synthesis  will  probably  replace  both.  Both  agree  that  the  di- 
rection of  the  individual  life  experiment  is  determined  very 
largely  by  heredity,  the  energy  inherent  in  the  germ-cell. 
Neither  will  deny  that  the  final  control  of  the  grand  strategy 
of  the  evolution  of  life  as  a  whole  and  its  direction  is  in 
large  part  the  result  of  the  process  of  natural  selection.  For 
this  in  the  end  controls  the  survival  and  permanence  of  cer- 


88  fHE  COMING  OF  MAN 

tain  lines  of  development  while  it  weeds  out  and  discards  a 
host  of  others. 

Here  nature  has  the  last  word.  Man  can  become  her  part- 
ner, and  she  will  make  him  ruler  over  many  things;  but  he 
is  responsible  to  her  and  to  God  for  his  use  of  the  power  del- 
egated to  him.  She  demands  a  strict  accounting,  and  every 
day  is  a  day  of  judgment.  She  is  a  stern  mistress,  a  hyper- 
calvinist. 

We  are  all  experimenters.  Nature  sets  the  test,  lays  down 
the  rules,  assigns  the  marks,  awards  the  prize  and  there 
seems  to  be  no  appeal.  Our  bodily  and  mental  structure  and 
functioning,  our  laws,  our  deepest  convictions,  our  social  ways, 
our  moral  codes  and  ends  are  all  being  slowly  but  surely  tested 
in  her  great  experimental  laboratory  of  life.  Much  of  our 
discomfort  and  pain  is  due  to  our  neglect  and  reckless  dis- 
regard or  criminal  ignorance  of  what  really  constitutes  con- 
formity to  Nature's  ways  and  laws ;  it  is  her  premonitory  warn- 
ing of  her  threatened  fatal  box  on  the  ear. 

In  one  word,  man,  good  and  bad  and  imperfect  as  he  is,  is 
the  result  of  a  process  of  selection  of  those  living  beings  who 
are  best  conformed  to,  and  embody  and  express  in  life,  the 
laws  of  nature.  Huxley's  liberally  educated  man  "  is  as  com- 
pletely as  a  man  can  be  in  harmony  with  her.  He  will  make 
the  best  of  her  and  she  of  him.  They  will  get  on  together 
rarely,  she  as  his  ever  beneficent  mother,  he  as  her  mouth- 
piece, her  conscious  self  and  interpreter." 

Speaking  of  "  natural  knowledge "  he  goes  on  to  say: 
"  There  are  blind  leaders  of  the  blind,  and  not  a  few  of  them, 
who  can  see  nothing  in  the  bountiful  mother  of  humanity  but 
a  sort  of  comfort  grinding  machine.  According  to  them,  the 
improvement  of  natural  knowledge  always  has  been,  and  al- 
ways must  be,  synonymous  with  no  more  than  the  improve- 
ment of  the  material  resources  and  the  increase  of  the  grati- 
fications of  men.  Natural  knowledge  is,  in  their  eyes,  no  real 
mother  of  mankind,  bringing  them  up  with  kindness,  and,  if 
need  be,  with  sternness  in  the  way  they  should  go,  and  in- 
structing them  in  all  things  needful  for  their  welfare,  but 


NATURE  AND  MAN  89 

a  sort  of  fairy-godmother,  ready  to  furnish  her  pets  with 
shoes  of  swiftness,  swords  of  sharpness,  and  omnipotent  Alad- 
din's lamps,  so  that  they  may  have  telegraphs  to  Saturn,  and 
see  the  other  side  of  the  moon,  and  thank  God  they  are 
better  than  their  benighted  ancestors."  ^ 

If  Huxley  were  alive  to-day,  I  believe  that  he  would  speak 
in  still  more  vigorous  English,  but  with  less  urbanity.  Man 
is  still  in  his  nonage,  scarcely  more  than  a  child.  Occidental 
man,  most  of  all  here  in  America,  is  a  spoiled  child. 

In  our  use  of  the  gifts  of  a  bountiful  nature,  we  resemble 
a  parcel  of  spoiled  and  ill-mannered  children  who  have  broken 
into  their  mother's  well-stocked  preserve  closet  where  she  has 
put  aside  a  rich  supply  of  good  things  against  a  day  of  thanks- 
giving and  a  winter  of  need.  They  have  stuffed  themselves, 
destroyed  what  they  could  not  devour,  wasted  nearly  all, 
quarreled  with  one  another,  and  have  left  ruin  behind  them. 
They  are  bitter  in  their  out-cries  against  any  and  every  neigh- 
bour who  refuses  to  allow  them  similarly  to  misuse  his  prop- 
erty. 

They  will  emerge  dirty,  nauseated,  ill-tempered,  an  un- 
pleasant sight  and  neighborhood  nuisance.  They  all  unite 
in  blaming  their  mother  for  not  having  secured  the  door  and 
brought  them  up  better.  They  need  a  sound  spanking,  a  cold 
bath,  a  large  dose  of  physic,  and  school  early  to-morrow  morn- 
ing. 

Is  not  this  a  just  picture  of  the  ways  and  doings  of  our  gen- 
eration which  culminated  in  the  war?  We  wonder  that  our 
children  give  so  little  heed  to  our  wisdom,  preaching  and  teach- 
ing. Yet,  here  we  are  talking  about  Nature  whom  we  have 
abused,  and  who  might  well  and  justly  vent  her  wrath  on  us. 
Perhaps  it  is  as  well  to  make  her  defendant  and  to  act  as 
judge  and  jury  before  we  appear  at  her  bar. 

Is  Nature  good  or  bad,  moral,  unmoral,  or  immoral?  It 
is  hard  to  say.  We  look  at  man,  her  child,  "her  conscious 
self,  mouthpiece  and  interpreter."  Is  he  good  or  bad?  He 
seems  to  be  both;  sometimes  rising  to  sublime  heights  of  hero- 


90  ^HE  COMING  OF  MAN 

ism,  sometimes  sinking  into  a  bottomless  pit  of  meanness, 
stupidity,  folly  and  sin.  Goodness  and  badness  seem  to  form 
strata  or  streaks  in  his  character,  both  alternately  coming  to 
the  surface.  He  is  always  putting  down  or  yielding  to  mutiny 
or  rebellion  waged  by  his  worse  self.  Here  we  call  it  the 
problem  of  moral  evil,  against  which  generations  of  the  most 
profound  thinkers  have  bruised  head  and  heart.  If  man 
spends  much  of  his  time  and  most  of  his  energy  in  such  bat- 
tles, need  we  be  surprised  if  Nature  also  shows  some  conflict- 
ing features  and  forces?  We  may  yet  discover  some  rays  of 
light  on  this  dark  question,  but  they  will  be  feeble  and  dim. 

If  you  wish  a  clear  view  of  Nature  in  her  fairer  aspects, 
read  Huxley's  essays  on  ''  Liberal  Education  "  and  "  Natural 
Knowledge."  I  know  of  no  more  unsparing  judgment  of  her 
shortcomings  and  perversity  than  his  "  Evolution  and  Ethics." 
I  cannot  pretend  to  harmonize  or  judge  between  the  two  pre- 
sentations. Both  are  somewhat  one-sided  and  extreme;  each 
rests  on  undeniable  facts;  they  supplement  each  other.  The 
reader  must  judge  for  himself. 

But  even  if  we  accept  the  severest  arraignment  of  Nature 
and  the  catalogue  of  her  manifold  sins  and  transgressions,  a 
word  may  still  be  said  in  her  defence;  perhaps  her  child,  man 
still  in  his  nonage,  is  at  least  partly  responsible  for  the  sins 
which  he  lays  at  her  door.  Is  he  not  somewhat  spoiled,  ill- 
tempered  and  irresponsible?  Let  us  accept  squarely  and 
honestly  our  just  share  of  the  blame,  and  manfully  take  our 
punishment  and  medicine. 

Does  Nature  teach  ruthless  competition  and  treading  down 
of  others?  Does  not  the  social  or  gregarious  life  of  nearly 
all  birds  and  mammals  equally  teach  cooperation  and  mutual 
helpfulness?  '^  Perhaps  even  we  are  far  enough  advanced  to 
have  outgrown  certain  methods  of  action  and  training  un- 
avoidable and  even  helpful  on  a  lower  stage,  but  now  an  abuse. 
Perhaps  the  outgrowing  of  certain  brutal  or  childish  things  is 
what  we  are  here  for,  and  what  Nature  demands  of  her  "  con- 

'F. 


NA'TURE  AND  MAN  91 

scious  self."  Above  all  let  us  always  seek  her  last  ruling  and 
interpretation  of  her  laws. 

When  all  has  been  said  there  remains  much  for  man  to  do. 
Many  of  her  methods  can  be  improved.  There  is  much  which 
must  be  opposed  or  curbed.  If  the  desert  is  to  blossom  as 
the  rose,  many  thorns  and  briers  must  be  uprooted  from  the 
soil.  We  must  also  remember  that  she  is  continually  stimu- 
lating our  growth  in  strength  by  compelling  us  to  wrestle 
with  or  against  her;  and  the  game  is  often  rough. 

We  must  understand  her  and  her  ways;  and  without  sym- 
pathy understanding  is  impossible.  We  may  learn  to  marvel 
at  her  beauty,  even  if  we  cannot  always  and  altogether  admire 
her  character.  We  can  appreciate  Nature  only  as  we  know 
and  understand  ourselves;  and  most  of  us  are  too  busy  or 
idle  to  devote  much  time  to  the  study  of  either.  Somehow  we 
must  live  and  get  on  with  her  for,  to  mis-quote  Hiawatha: 

^'  Though  he  bend  her,  he  obeys  her. 
Though  he  draw  her,  yet  he  follows." 

We  have  said  that  good  and  bad  in  man  lie  in  alternating 
layers  or  streaks;  there  is  much  good  in  the  worst,  too  much 
of  bad  in  the  best.  This  is  partly  due  to  the  presence  of  out- 
worn tendencies  which  ought  to  have  been  outgrown,  partly 
to  lack  of  health  and  vigor,  partly  to  weakness  and  ignorance, 
partly  to  sheer  perversity  and  original  or  acquired  sin. 

Much  of  it  springs  from  a  still  deeper  root.  Man  is  an  ex- 
ceedingly complex  being.  He  is  like  a  craftsman  who  has  so 
many  tools  that  most  of  them  grow  rusty  and  dull  for  lack  of 
use. 

We  will  take  only  one  illustration  as  sample.  Our  mind 
manifests  itself  in  intelligence,  feeling  and  will.  In  the 
healthy  mind  these  are  all  highly  and  symmetrically  developed, 
but  this  is  a  rare  case.  We  find  cold-blooded  intellectualists, 
who  feel  little  and  accomplish  less.  Some  of  them  are  "  see- 
ing cripples."  We  find  weak,  "  sentimentalists,"  oil-films  on 
shallow  pools;   also  obstinately  self-willed  people  of  narrow 


92  THE  COMING  OF  MAN 

intellect  and  no  feeling,  completely  blind.  Head  and  heart 
rarely  balance. 

This  is  due  partly  to  heredity  increased  by  early  nurture 
or  neglect  and  the  environment  of  youth  and  maturity,  partly 
to  our  own  negligence  or  perversity.  The  result  is  lack  of 
symmetry,  balance  and  control;  of  Engkrateia,  inward 
strength. 

Burn  sulphur,  niter  and  charcoal  separately  and  you  get 
mainly  a  bad  odor.  Combine  them  thoroughly  in  proper  pro- 
portion, put  them  in  a  gun-barrel,  ram  down  a  bullet;  then  take 
care  how  you  aim.     Something  will  happen. 

We  very  rarely  see  the  result  of  high,  symmetrical,  complete 
development  of  all  the  powers  of  the  mind  in  a  single  indi- 
vidual, like  Socrates  or  Lincoln.  There  is  nothing  about  them 
which  sticks  out  conspicuously  and  attracts  our  notice;  their 
greatness  is  concealed  by  their  symmetry.  Long  after  their 
death  we  begin  to  appreciate  them.  They  form  what  Heine 
has  called  ''  the  apostolic  succession  of  great  souls,  the  only 
people  in  the  world  who  ever  see  anything  as  it  is,"  and  who 
understand  its  meaning.  These  men  show  us  what  man  can  be 
and  will  be.  They  live,  and  are  more  than  irrefutable  argu- 
ments for  immortality:  they  are  samples  and  illustrations  of 
it.  They  cannot  die,  though  they  may  belong  to  the  noble 
army  of  martyrs.  Nature  will  some  day  produce  a  race  of 
such  men,  if  there  is  any  logic  in  evolution.  She  will  not  be 
balked. 

We  are  all  more  or  less  crippled  by  our  weakest  spot,  our 
undeveloped  or  disused  powers.  They  avenge  themselves  on 
us  for  our  neglect  by  remaining  mainly  to  plague  us.  But 
some  of  us  reserve  for  ourselves  an  even  worse  fate.  Said 
Zarathustra  to  the  cripples  on  the  bridge  who  begged  him  to 
heal  them:  "  It  is  the  smallest  thing  to  me,  since  I  have  been 
amongst  men,  to  see  one  person  lacking  an  eye,  another  an 
ear,  and  a  third  a  leg;  and  that  others  have  lost  the  tongue  or 
the  nose  or  the  head." 

"  I  see  and  have  seen  worse  things,  and  divers  things  so 
hideous  that  I  should  neither  like  to  speak  of  all  matters,  nor 


NA'TURE  AND  MAN  93 

even  keep  silent  about  some  of  them:  namely  men  who  lack 
everything,  except  that  they  have  too  much  of  one  thing  — 
men  who  are  nothing  more  than  a  big  eye  or  a  big  mouth,  or 
a  big  belly,  or  something  else  big, —  reversed  cripples  I  call 
such  men." 

''  And  —  I  could  not  trust  mine  eyes,  but  looked  again  and 
again,  and  said  at  last  '  That  is  an  ear !  An  ear  as  big  as  a 
man!  '  I  looked  still  more  attentively  —  and  actually  there 
did  move  under  the  ear  something  that  was  pitiably  small  and 
poor  and  slim.  And  in  truth  this  immense  ear  was  perched 
on  a  small  thin  stalk  —  the  stalk,  however,  was  a  man.  A 
person  putting  a  glass  to  his  eyes  could  even  recognize  further 
a  small  envious  countenance,  and  also  that  a  bloated  soullet 
dangled  at  the  stalk.  The  people  told  me,  however,  that  the 
big  ear  was  not  only  a  man,  but  a  great  man,  a  genius.  But 
I    never    believed    the    people    when    they    spake   of    great 


men." 


''  Verily,  my  friends,  I  walk  amongst  men  as  amongst  the 
fragments  and  hmbs  of  human  beings!  A  seer,  a  purposer, 
a  creator,  a  future  itself,  and  a  bridge  to  the  future  —  and  alas ! 
also,  as  it  were,  a  cripple  on  this  bridge:  all  that  is  Zara- 
thustra." 

"  Not  the  height,  it  is  the  declivity  that  is  terrible!  "  ^ 

Man  is  the  blind  giant  of  the  will  guided,  but  not  completely 
or  directly  controlled,  by  the  seeing  cripple  of  the  intellect 
perched  upon  his  shoulder.  In  partnership  they  will  go  far 
and  accomplish  much.  But  do  not  most  of  us  go  through  life 
scarred,  maimed,  crippled  or  '^  reversed  cripples "?  Man 
will  surely  come;  he  is  coming,  he  has  certainly  not  yet  ar- 
rived. 

The  evolution  of  man  resolves  itself  finally  into  a  series  of 
discoveries,  of  his  finding  more  and  more  in  a  Nature  which 
is  trebly  or  tenfold  masked,  and  of  which  we  still  know  very 
little.  The  whole  process  is  a  tendency  or  urge  toward  higher 
and  finer  powers  still  only  crudely  expressed  even  by  man. 

For  millions  of  years  on  this  old  earth  Nature  busied  her- 


102. 


94  "fHE  COMING  OF  MAN 

self  with  chemical  and  physical  problems.  Then  life  and  con- 
sciousness appeared  in  microscopic  particles  asking  at  first 
only  existence.  The  whole  trend  of  Nature's  forces  seemed  to 
be  toward  a  being  which  could  digest  and  reproduce.  All 
else  seems  subsidiary  or  by-product. 

Gradually  the  world  becomes  an  arena  of  struggling,  fight- 
ing brutes  developing  a  tough,  powerful  body  with  keen  sense 
organs  and  sharp  weapons.  The  forces  of  Nature  seem  to 
combine  in  one  grand  resultant,  compelling  the  highest  ani- 
mals to  follow  this  Hne  of  march,  every  other  road  leads  to 
degeneration  or  extinction. 

Man  became  a  thoroughly  social  being  living  in  families, 
villages  and  tribes,  where  mutual  competition  is  replaced  by 
mutual  helpfulness  and  affection.  He  is  in  a  fair  way  to  be- 
come a  highly  intelligent,  rational,  moral  and  religious,  spirit- 
ual being.  This  is  a  revolution;  old  things  are  passing  away, 
all  things  are  becoming  new;  but  the  change  is  very  recent, 
the  revolution  has  only  begun.  Its  completion  is  the  only  logi- 
cal, rational,  natural  result  of  the  whole  history  of  animal 
life;  otherwise  life  is  a  "  story  told  by  an  idiot,  full  of  sound 
and  fury,  signifying  nothing;"  a  ^' march  from  the  inane  to 
the  inane." 

Nature,  still  maintaining  physical  power  and  vigor,  has  un- 
masked herself,  and  shows  a  very  stout  countenance  set  on 
righteousness.  But  man  is  still  in  a  very  immature  nonage 
and  learns  exceedingly  slowly.  He  halts  between  two  courses 
or  worlds,  an  outgrown  past  and  an  unattained  future.  In 
developing  personality  Nature  had  to  loosen  the  curb  of  her 
rein  and  leave  man  to  learn  by  hard  experience  how  to  con- 
trol himself.  He  learns  very  slowly.  His  hardest  work  is  to 
put  down  his  own  mutiny  and  rebellion  against  his  better 
self. 

Nature  has  set  her  vigorous,  energetic,  highly  endowed  child 
free  to  choose  and  act  for  himself,  has  made  him  her  partner, 
in  a  sense  her  vice-regent;  has  given  him  all  things  freely  to 
use  and  enjoy.  Like  many  other  heirs  to  wealth  for  which 
they  have  not  toiled,  man  turns  ungratefully,  abuses  and  ex- 


NA'TURE  AND  MAN  95 

ploits  the  free  gifts  of  Nature,  and  would  make  her  his  slave; 
an  exceedingly  dangerous  experiment. 

She  has  not  abrogated  her  laws  of  the  great  game.  Hered- 
ity has  insured  that  the  best  attainments  of  his  ancestors  shall 
go  to  the  child,  also  some  of  his  weaknesses.  If  a  man  per- 
sists in  squandering  this  entailed  estate,  he,  not  Nature,  is 
responsible  for  the  loss;  and  his  children  may  justly  curse  him. 
Nature  is  not  to  blame,  and  the  law  of  heredity  is  on  the  whole 
and  in  the  long  run  beneficent. 

Natural  selection  for  which,  as  for  heredity,  Nature  is  re- 
sponsible, has  certainly  resulted  in  a  marvellous  line  of  sure 
and  comparatively  steady  progress.  It  sifts  and  selects  un- 
sparingly and  with  ever  higher  standards  for  survival.  It  has 
always  demanded  the  seemingly  impossible;  it  will  probably 
continue  to  do  so.  After  a  period  of  prolonged  prosperity, 
when  survival  has  been  comparatively  easy  and  variation  wide, 
there  must  always  follow  a  period  of  the  severest  selection  of 
a  saving  remnant.  We  can  only  gird  our  loins  to  meet  the 
test  or  go  down  before  it. 

We  may  well  face  the  fact  that,  as  Huxley  has  said,  "  the 
avoidance  of  pain  and  discomfort  is  no  proper  object  of 
life."  Nature's  school  and  training  is  not  for  carpet-knights. 
We  may  yet  discover  that  life  is  not  a  scheme  for  the  great- 
est possible  ease  and  luxury,  but  an  adventure  in  endurance 
resulting  in  experience,  wisdom,  and  a  well-founded  hope,  a 
Marathon  race.  This  doctrine  is  exceedingly  old-fashioned, 
old  as  the  life  which  began  before  the  everlasting  hills  were 
born. 

The  frontiersman  of  progress  does  not  expect  all  the  lux- 
uries of  an  old  artificial  civilization.  His  reward  is  an  abound- 
ing life  overflowing  with  the  glow  of  health,  and  a  youthful 
civilization  close  to  Nature.  On  him  she  smiles.  They  "  get 
on  rarely  together,"  and  he  falls  in  love  with  her  in  spite 
of  her  imperfections  and  waywardness.  She  is  good  enough 
for  him. 

I  hold  no  brief  for  Nature.  She  can  defend  herself.  But 
her  highest  ways  are  past  finding  out,  and  we  cannot  search 


96  "THE  COMING  OF  MAN 

for  them  too  carefully.  We  are  to  blame  for  many  of  the 
worst  cruelties  and  crimes  imputed  to  her.  Let  us  be  fair 
and  just  toward  her.  We  may  find  kindness  and  divine  beauty 
behind  her  masks  and  disguises. 


IX 

MAN  AND  ENVIRONMENT 

MAN  is  Nature's  mouthpiece  and  interpreter,  the  con- 
scious expression  of  what  is  best  in  her,  as  well 
as  of  some  which  is  not  so  good  and  must  be  out- 
grown. Nature  is  very  slowly  and  patiently  educating,  guid- 
ing and  moulding  him  as  she  has  all  his  humbler  ancestors. 
The  individual,  the  species,  or  the  larger  group  which  fails 
to  obey  her  laws  and  conform  to  her  ways  is  slowly  but  surely 
weeded  out.  Only  those  which  meet  the  requirements  of  her 
tests  survive.  If  we  neglect  or  resist  her  training  we  go  down 
and  out.  The  penalty  of  disobedience  and  non-conformity  is 
death. 

Conformity  means  literally  taking  the  form  of  the  impress 
of  environment,  like  wax  under  the  pressure  of  the  seal  or 
clay  in  the  hands  of  the  potter.  Every  part  of  our  body 
bears  the  impress  and  stamp  of  the  conditions  under  which  it 
arose.  Our  cells  are  bathed  in  lymph  like  unicellular  organ- 
isms in  a  primeval  ocean.  Our  trunk  was  constructed  by 
writhing  worms.  Our  backbone  in  its  various  forms  during 
successive  stages  of  development  points  to  changing  conditions 
and  habits  of  ancient  vertebrate  life.  Legs  and  arms,  jointed 
appendages,  tell  of  emergence  on  land;  every  bone  and  joint 
is  the  solution  of  problems  of  physics  and  engineering.  Our 
hands  were  shaped  and  finished  in  an  arboreal  gymnasium; 
our  feet  modified  to  suit  life  on  the  ground.  Our  nervous 
system  tells  the  same  story.  Man  is  a  walking  museum  of 
palaeontology,  every  part  bearing  the  impress  of  conditions  at 
the  time  of  its  origin.  The  same  may  be  said  of  every  ani- 
mal.    Says  Weissman :     "  When  you  take  away  all  the  ad- 

97 


98  t'hje;  coming  of  man 

aptations  from  a  whale,  there  is  not  much  left."  The  story 
of  evolution  is  a  history  of  successful  adaptations. 

In  every  age  and  stage  of  our  evolution  some  organ  has  had 
its  special  time  for  rapid  change  and  improvement.  Then  the 
pressure  or  urge  passes  over  to  some  other  part,  as  we  have 
seen  in  our  study  of  the  sequence  of  dominant  functions. 
The  essential  features  of  the  organ  now  set  and  become  rela- 
tively fixed;  all  further  changes  are  slight.  Nearly  all  the 
organs  of  the  human  body  have  acquired  fairly  definite  form 
and  structure,  and  have  changed  but  slightly  during  the  last 
million  years.  Changes  now  are  mostly  limited  to  the  "  silent 
areas  "  of  the  cerebral  cortex.  There  is  a  time  for  everything 
and  ''  opportunity  knocks  but  once."  Yet  it  is  all  one  process, 
"  the  history  of  the  ever-advancing  victory  of  spirit  over  mat- 
ter," as  von  Baer  said. 

We  have  spoken  of  conformity  to  environment  as  if  it  were 
merely  a  stamp  impressed  upon  receptive  and  passive  material. 
This  is  not  correct.  The  adaptation  consists  in  a  reaction  of 
the  living  being,  stimulated  by  external  forces.  The  reaction 
or  response  to  the  stimulus  differs  according  to  the  character 
of  the  responding  animal  or  man  and  hence  may  vary  greatly. 
I  may  give  the  same  kick  to  a  stone,  a  sheep  or  a  bull-dog; 
the  response  will  be  quite  different.  The  more  highly  de- 
veloped and  complex  the  animal,  the  more  varied  and  less  pre- 
dictable its  response.  Sloth,  squirrel  and  ape  are  all  adapted 
to  an  arboreal  environment,  but  they  have  reacted  very  dif- 
ferently; all  three  have  conformed  but  in  different  ways  and 
to  different  degrees,  the  sloth  apparently  the  most  completely 
of  all. 

There  is  such  a  thing  as  over-adaptation  where  the  animal 
or  man  has  so  completely  adapted  itself  to  one  set  of  condi- 
tions that  change  and  readaptation  to  a  new  environment  is  no 
longer  possible.  If  its  environment  changes,  as  it  always  does, 
or  if  it  is  compelled  to  seek  a  new  environment,  it  is  at  a  dis- 
advantage and  probably  disappears.  Large  size  usually  shows 
that  conditions  in  a  certain  age  and  place  have  been  favor- 
able and  adaptation  complete.     If  climate  and  food-supply 


MAN  AND  ENVIRONMENT  99 

change,  the  largest  forms  usually  suffer  first  and  most  severely. 
This  has  been  an  important  factor  in  the  extinction  of  many 
dominant  groups;  so,  probably,  of  reptiles.  Through  over- 
specialization  and  adaptation  to  one  part  or  aspect  of  nature, 
they  have  lost  touch  and  conformity  with  the  whole.     This 


means  ruin.^ 


Surroundings  crowd,  urge,  stimulate,  draw  or  attract  in  vary- 
ing degrees  and  in  different  directions  according  to  the  ani- 
mal on  which  they  act.  The  resulting  reaction  or  response 
depends  upon  both  variables. 

We  may  say  that  in  higher  animals  and  man,  environment 
is  very  largely  a  matter  of  relation  of  the  individual  to  his 
surroundings.  If  I  am  entirely  outside  of  any  relation,  direct 
or  indirect,  to  a  certain  object  in  my  surroundings,  it  can 
form  no  part  of  my  environment  in  any  proper  sense  of  the 
word.  Here  three  elements,  all  variable,  are  concerned:  ob- 
jects and  forces  of  the  external  world,  man  or  animal,  and 
the  relation  between  the  two.  Hence  we  all  live  in  one  world 
but  every  man  has  or  forms,  to  a  certain  extent,  his  own 
environment.  Under  similar  surroundings,  different  men  have 
different  environments.  From  one  almost  compelling  set  of 
surroundings  Judas  went  down  to  Gehenna,  and  Peter  went  up 
to  the  throne.  Each  had  his  own  environment  and  went  to  his 
own  place.  Surroundings  and  environment  are  anything  but 
synonymous  words;  very  much,  if  not  all,  hinges  on  the  re- 
lation. 

Some  elements  appear  fairly  constant  in  all  environments, 
e.  g.,  air,  water,  light.  We  are  just  beginning  to  appreciate 
the  importance  of  climate,  differing  indeed,  in  different  re- 
gions and  changing  from  time  to  time.  One  element  is  con- 
tinually shifting,  due  to  the  rise  of  new  forms  of  life  and 
the  disappearance  of  old  ones.  The  rise  of  sharks  compelled 
all  weaker,  perhaps  hitherto  dominant  forms  to  seek  refuge. 
The  same  may  be  said  of  reptiles,  whose  disappearance  gave 
mammals  a  wider  opportunity.     Man  of  the  species  Simia  de- 

1  H.   113.   177.  228. 
19- 


100  "fHE  COMING  OF  MAN 

structor  has  wrought  much  ruin  in  the  world,  as  Homo  sapiens 
he  may  help  to  restore  and  transfigure  it.  The  relation  of 
animal  to  animal  and  of  man  to  man,  a  relation  continually 
changing,  is  the  most  important  element  in  biological  history. 

The  first  step  in  conformity  is  discovery.^  When  we  dis- 
cover an  object,  we  bring  it  into  relation  to  our  sense-organs 
or  mind.  We  focus  our  attention  upon  it  and  discover  new 
possible  relations  which  may  satisfy  some  pressing  need. 
Then  we  proceed  to  experiment,  and  frame  and  establish  some 
new  relation;  and  we  may  call  this  an  invention. 

The  amoeba  is  always  groping  in  the  surrounding  water. 
It  is  remarkable  how  early  the  animal  began  to  develop  sense- 
organs.  The  higher  worms  possess  them  all,  though  crude  and 
incompletely  developed.  The  ear  starts  as  an  organ  for  feel- 
ing vibrations  in  the  water,  and  ends  as  an  open  doorway  for 
the  entrance  of  all  the  highest  and  finest,  as  well  as  lower, 
sentiments  and  appeals.  We  can  take  heed  how  and  what  we 
hear.  The  eye,  at  first  a  mere  light-perceiving  speck,  aids 
in  perceiving  the  direction  of  the  source  of  light,  and  ends 
by  forming  images  of  surrounding  objects.  Imagine  the  furor 
in  some  learned  society  of  annehds,  when  Alciope  announced 
and  maintained  that  he  could  see  and  distinguish  the  form  of 
an  object  almost  an  inch  distant.  And  these  sense-organs 
stimulate  and  develop  the  brain,  until  it  —  or  the  immanent 
mind  —  becomes  a  sense-organ  itself  discovering  values  and 
ideals,  beauty,  truth,  goodness  and  God;  all  of  which  he  has 
discovered,  none  of  which  he  could  make.  They  make  him, 
if  he  so  wills  or  allows.  These  are  all  in  the  margin  of  his 
environment  as  soon  as  discovered.  What  and  how  close  his 
relation  is  to  be  to  any  or  all  of  these,  seems  to  be  left  to  him. 
We  are  apt  to  forget  how  large  a  part  discovery  plays  in  evo- 
lution. Man  combines  and  relates  the  results  of  his  dis- 
coveries; he  makes  comparatively  little.  All  his  so-called 
laws  are  expressions  or  descriptions  of  objects  and  relations 
which  he  has  discovered.^ 

2T.  41. 
2  1 :229. 


MAN  AND  environment:  loi 

This  sensitiveness  to  and  discovery  of  new  objects  and  con- 
ditions gave  nature  a  new  opening  of  attack  in  higher  ani- 
mals and  most  of  all  in  man;  it  opened  new  environments  in 
a  world  of  ancient  objects  and  forces.  Environment  is  evi- 
dently something  very  different  from  a  mass  of  surroundings, 
all  lumped  together;  it  is  not  simply  a  resultant  of  forces; 
it  is  to  every  man  a  new  relation  to  a  new  combination. 

Surroundings  are  mostly  the  raw  material  out  of  which 
every  living  being  consciously  or  unconsciously,  with  or  with- 
out understanding,  will  or  purpose,  selects,  or  accepts  certain 
portions  and  out  of  these  constructs  its  own  environment  ac- 
cording to  its  own  inherited  structure  and  tendencies  or  ac- 
quired character.  This  is  his  unique  experiment  by  which  he 
stands  or  falls. 

A  man  may  be  known  and  measured  by  his  environment,  for 
it  is  "  the  company  he  keeps."  His  position  in  the  hierarchy 
of  life  may  be  fairly  accurately  measured  by  it.  It  broadens, 
deepens  and  towers  in  proportion  to  his  development.  The 
lower  animal  changes  his  environment  by  his  powers  of  lo- 
comotion, moving  from  dangerous  to  advantageous  surround- 
ings; man  accomplishes  much  the  same  result  by  shifting  the 
focal  point  of  his  attention. 

Certain  parts  of  our  environment  seem  irrevocably  fixed  for 
at  least  some  of  us,  so  that  we  cannot  escape  them.  So  cli- 
mate. The  slum  or  a  city  palace  is  forced  upon  many  children 
so  that  they  cannot  escape.  Neither  is  desirable;  good  and 
brave  men  have  risen  from  both.  Early  parental  influence 
and  education  may  be,  and  often  are,  fatal  to  full  and  nor- 
mal development.  But  these  can  and  should  be  improved  if 
as  many  as  possible  are  to  be  fitted  to  survive;  man  has 
changed  all  these,  and  can  and  will  improve  them.  Man  mi- 
grated northward  into  Europe.  Its  cold  harsh  climate  had 
direct  invigorating  effects.  Its  indirect  effects  were  still  more 
important.  He  needed  shelter;  he  discovered  it  in  the  mouth 
of  a  cave  or  under  an  over-hanging  cliff;  then  he  built  a  hut. 
He  was  chilled,  and  discovered  fire  and  learned  to  use  it. 
He  covered  and  protected  himself  with  skins  of  animals.     He 


102  ^HE  COMING  OF  MAN 

was  weak  and  defenceless,  he  used  a  pebble  or  sharp  stone 
as  a  weapon,  and  learned  to  shape  an  axe  and  other  tools. 
Population  increased  and  game  became  scarce;  he  became  an 
agriculturist.  Society  arose  and  new  needs  with  it.  There 
is  interdependence  and  mutual  aid  and  cooperation.  Man  has 
become  a  moral  being;  and  has  discovered  a  spiritual  world 
which  alone  can  satisfy  his  spiritual  needs. 

Man's  greatest,  most  valuable  and  essential  assets  and  pos- 
session are  probably  not  his  attainments,  for  these  are  small; 
not  his  Castles  in  Spain,  for  these  are  remote;  they  are  his 
ever-present  bitter  needs. ^  From  them  spring  discovery,  in- 
vention, progress.  As  soon  as  these  are  satisfied,  we  die.  It 
is  as  well  we  should.  Nature  does  not  spoil  her  children  as 
fond  parents  do. 

Man  selected  certain  materials  furnished  by  Nature  and  has 
given  them  a  form  answering  to  his  needs.  From  a  pauper 
dependent  on  her  gifts  he  has  become  a  partner,  possibly  a 
leading  partner,  with  her.  Here  and  there  he  is  trying  to 
make  her  his  servant.  He  has  framed  a  new  environment, 
built  up  between  himself  and  her  as  a  defence  against  her 
slings  and  arrows,  and  as  a  means  of  farther  utilization  of 
her  bountiful  gifts.  This  environment  is  to  some  small  ex- 
tent natural,  but  very  largely  artificial,  the  work  of  his  hands. 
He,  not  Nature,  has  framed  it;  it  is  his  experiment.  Without 
it,  sometimes  with  it,  he  remains  a  savage.  It  increases  in 
amount,  complexity,  advantages,  opportunities  and  dangers 
with  the  progress  of  civilization. 

But  while  he  has  been  fashioning  and  building  it,  and  be- 
come more  and  more  dependent  upon  it,  it  has  steadily  changed 
and  molded  him  for  better  and  worse.  He  adds  arts  and 
sciences  unattainable  without  it.  But  the  artificial  environ- 
ment tends  to  master  and  enslave  him.  He  craves  not  only 
the  supply  of  his  natural,  but  of  a  host  of  artificial  needs,  some 
of  which  are  or  may  be  excellent.  He  craves  luxuries  satisfy- 
ing every  appetite,  desire  and  whim;  life  has  become  strangely, 
intolerably  dull,  he  must  have  artificial  stimulants  and  all 

*  loi  :6o. 


MAN  AND  ENVIRONMENT  103 

kinds  of  amusements.  All  these  tyrannize  over  him.  He  is 
becoming  the  slave  of  things. 

Nature  is  idealized  as  a  fairy  godmother,  or  valued  as  a 
mass  of  exploitable  material.  Science  is  encouraged  not  so 
much  as  a  means  of  truth  as  a  provider  of  comforts  and  lux- 
uries, and  an  ally  in  despoiling  nature.  He  has  barred  out 
nature  so  far  as  he  can;  becomes  weak  and  unhealthy  in  mind 
and  body.  Complete  conformity  to  artificial  environment  and 
repletion  have  cost  him  his  vigor  and  powers  of  endurance. 
He  glories  in  his  over-specialization  and  seems  in  a  fair  way 
to  become  a  ''  reversed  cripple."  Men  have  invented  and 
made  —  we  might  almost  say  created  —  vast  military,  politi- 
cal or  economic  machines  and  trusted  in  them.  The  machine 
catches  and  crushes  them  in  its  wheels  and  then  breaks  dov/n 
because  of  its  weight  and  complexity.  Is  not  this  the  his- 
tory of  every  ancient  "  successful  "  civiHzation?  Why  should 
we  be  an  exception? 

Can  we  fail  to  notice  the  same  tendency  in  all  social  life 
with  its  opportunities  for  mutual  help  and  improvement,  and 
wealth  of  enjoyment,  its  training  in  manners,  which  are  or 
should  be  a  branch  of  morals;  its  correction  of  our  individual 
one-sidedness  and  weaknesses  and  egoism;  its  power  of  public 
opinion;  its  conventions,  fashions,  tyranny,  futility  and  empti- 
ness? We  make  the  political  machine,  it  rules  us,  and  we  wor- 
ship it.     This  looks  like  either  fetichism  or  "  graft,"  or  both. 

In  all  such  cases  we  allow  the  "  cake  of  custom  "  to  thicken 
and  harden  around  us  and  tearfully  mourn  that  we  cannot 
break  it.^  The  confession,  if  true,  explains,  justifies  and 
seals  our  doom. 

''  We  wrestle  in  our  present  state 
With  bonds  ourselves  have  forged  and  call  it  fate." 

There  is,  as  Huxley  has  well  said,  a  natural  and  an  artificial 
system  of  education.  Our  artificial  system  should  prepare  us 
to  receive  gladly  and  use  wisely  the  education  of  nature  and 
life.     Is  it  suited  to  teach  men  and  women  how  to  live,  to 

5  T.  201. 


104  "tHE  COMING  OF  MAN 

meet  life's  opportunities  and  emergencies,  to  fit  as  many  as 
possible  to  survive?  Does  it  also  tend  toward  over-speciali- 
zation and  narrow,  one-sided  development?  Is  it  broad  and 
human,  or  almost  entirely  professional  or  vocational  in  its 
aims  and  results?  Is  it  producing  strong  and  wise  leaders 
and  training  us  to  be  their  loyal  followers?  We  will  leave  all 
these  questions  to  those  who  have  specialized  in  education. 

Our  artificial  social  environment  is  of  almost  compeUing 
importance.  We  cannot  escape  it;  how  can  we  best  use  its 
advantages  and  opportunities  and  avoid  its  evils?  Let  us  hold 
fast  to  the  fact  that  our  environment  consists  not  altogether 
in  surrounding  objects  and  conditions,  but  also,  and  even  more, 
in  our  relation  to  these.  The  same  object  at  different  times 
varies  greatly  in  importance  to  me,  according  to  my  moods  and 
its  nearness  or  remoteness.  Yet  that  which  is  near  at  hand 
is  usually  not  appreciated,  and  the  obvious,  the  axiomatic,  in 
life,  is  always  forgotten  or  neglected. 

Let  us  glance  at  one  or  two  illustrations.  Two  men  find 
themselves  in  a  company  of  average  men  and  women.  One 
of  them  is  sympathetic,  hearty,  overflowing  with  health  and 
humor;  the  other  more  intellectual,  critical,  somewhat  in- 
clined to  dyspepsia.  The  first  finds  the  company  of  his  fel- 
lows intelligent,  kindly,  agreeable;  the  second  finds  them  just 
the  opposite.  Each  reports  honestly  and  truthfully  his  ex- 
perience and  observation.  Each  has  seen  and  drawn  out  a 
different  side  of  the  same  people,  and  has  contributed  of  his 
own.  From  the  same  company  each  has  framed  his  own  so- 
cial environment.  Each  has  selected,  expected,  found  at- 
tracted and  encouraged  that  which  he  was  fitted  to  call  out. 
The  material  was  the  same,  the  use  different. 

One  new  relation  may  change  a  man's  whole  life  and  thought. 
I  was  walking  the  street  one  dark,  chilly,  winter  day.  A  young 
fellow  called  out  to  me  cheerily:  "  Good  morning.  A  fine 
day!''  I  wondered  what  ailed  him.  A  moment  later  a  friend 
explained  the  mystery,  telling  me  that  the  young  man  had 
just  brought  a  trying  pursuit  and  courtship  to  a  happy  end- 
ing.    Nothing  had  changed  in  or  about  the  boy  or  girl.     They 


MAN  AND  ENVIRONMENr  105 

were  just  what  they  were  twenty-four  hours  earlier.  But  one 
new  relation  had  been  formed.  He  would  not  have  been  so 
gay,  or  the  sky  so  bright,  if  she  had  promised  and  honestly 
tried  to  be  a  sister  to  him.  We  trust  the  new  relation  re- 
sulted in  permanent  mutual  encouragement  and  uplift. 

The  content  of  the  book  is  insignificant  to  the  page  in  a 
library.  Another  has  few  books,  and  little  time  for  reading, 
yet  lives  in  and  by  them.  One  man  is  lifted,  thrilled,  and 
strengthened  by  music,  painting,  the  beauty  of  smiling  valley, 
of  clouds  and  sunsets  or  the  grandeur  of  the  mountains;  an- 
other, hving  in  their  midst,  is  practically  unaffected  by  them. 
They  form  the  surroundings  of  both,  the  environment  of  one. 

Two  men  read  a  page  of  poetry  or  science.  One  is  inspired 
by  the  ''  splendor  of  truth,"  which  was  Plato's  definition  of 
beauty;  the  other  remains  cold  and  dead.  The  passage  is 
really  as  foreign  to  him  as  if  written  in  an  unknown  tongue. 
No  man  can  be  a  hero  to  his  valet,  or  anybody  else,  if  hero- 
ism is  foreign  to  the  spectator's  environment.  The  environ- 
ment of  a  reversed  cripple  can  hardly  be  other  than  hell  or  a 
'^  fool's  paradise." 

Improvement  of  surroundings  seems  to  mean  removal  of 
barriers  to  progress  and  increase  of  opportunity.  But  these 
do  not  reach  the  root  of  the  difficulty;  this  lies  in  the  individual 
will  and  purpose.  To  treat  only  surroundings  or  even  the  in- 
tellect for  weakness  or  perversity  of  will  is  much  like  pre- 
scribing external  applications  for  deep-seated  disease. 

This  fact  has  been  emphasized  by  many  or  all  great  think- 
ers. Plato  said  that  many  men  must  be  improved  before 
they  can  be  educated.  Another  great  thinker  has  said,  ''  The 
law  is  weak."  Possibly  the  best  any  of  us  can  do  is  to  see 
to  it  that  we  encourage  and  call  out  the  best  that  is  in  our 
neighbors,  not  the  worst;  and  contribute  to  the  common 
stock  only  the  best  that  is  in  us,  keeping  the  rest  for  home 
consumption.  Most  of  us  can  still  improve  our  minds.  If 
you  would  know  how,  ask  the  psychologist.  If  we  could  co- 
operate in  this  effort,  we  might  find  that  even  society  is  much 
better  and  less  blame-worthy  than  we  have  thought. 


X 

THE  SURVIVAL  OF  THE  FITTEST 

WHAT  constitutes  fitness?     There  can  hardly  be  a 
more  important  question.     Our  answer  to  it  will 
color  our  view  of  the  whole  theory  of  evolution  and 
of  life. 

One  or  two  characteristics  of  fitness  are  fundamental,  neces- 
sary, and  evident  at  the  outset.  The  fittest  must  be  pro- 
gressive. However  great  its  attainments,  if  it  halts  in  its 
progress,  it  will  surely  be  surpassed  and  left  behind  by  some 
steadily  advancing  form,  and  progress  must  be  continued 
through  a  long  series  of  generations,  hence  the  fittest  must 
be  tough,  vigorous,  tenacious  of  life.  But  a  host  of  forms 
seem  able  to  meet  these  two  requirements. 

How  can  we  sift  them?  We  might  accept  the  great  line  of 
progress  marked  out  by  the  logic  of  evolution.  But  it  is 
safer  and  more  profitable  to  notice  the  facts  furnished  by  ge- 
ology and  palaeontology.  We  will  attempt  to  catch  a  glimpse 
of  our  globe  at  various  stages  of  evolution,  and  see  what 
forms  are  competing  for  the  prize  of  survival  and  leadership  in 
the  struggle  for  life.  As  we  pass  from  stage  to  stage,  we  can 
mark  the  success  or  failure  of  the  experiments  tried  by  the 
most  promising  competitors  in  preceding  stages. 

There  was  life  on  the  globe  long  before  the  beginning  of 
Palaeozoic  time.  The  "  everlasting  hills  "  have  slowly  risen, 
grown  old,  worn  down  and  disintegrated,  often  almost  dis- 
appeared, since  bacteria  and  many  less  primitive  forms  came 
on  the  stage.  Life  antedates  and  outlasts  them  all.  But  the 
earliest  forms  of  life  were  mostly  soft-bodied  and  left  no  trace. 
The  few  earliest  remains  teach  us  little.     We  catch  our  first 

1 06 


^HE  SURVIVAL  OF  fHE  FirrESt        107 

glimpse  somewhat  before  the  beginning  of  Palaeozoic  time. 
Our  chronology  is  none  too  definite,  our  view  distant  and  dim. 

At  this  time  a  very  large  part  of  the  globe  was  covered  by 
a  vast  primeval  ocean.  The  continents  were  hardly  outlined. 
North  America  seems  to  have  consisted  mainly  of  a  V-shaped 
mass  of  land  with  its  apex  near  Lake  Superior  and  its  arms 
stretching,  one  toward  Labrador,  the  other  toward  Alaska,  to 
the  east  and  west  of  Hudson's  Bay.  The  eastern  and  western 
edges  or  rims  of  the  continent  were  marked  by  uplifts  in  the 
region  of  the  present  Appalachian  and  Cascade  ranges. 
We  do  not  know  how  much  life  there  was  upon  the  land.  Our 
ancestors  seem  to  have  been  living  in  the  primeval  ocean;  if 
they  were  then  living  in  fresh  water,  it  would  not  greatly  af- 
fect our  conclusions. 

Mollusks  were  well  represented  in  nearly  or  quite  all  their 
great  divisions.  Clams,  safely  ensconced,  slumbered  in  the 
mud.  Other  forms  with  spiral  shells  crawled  on  the  sea- 
bottom.  Cuttlefish,  somewhat  like  our  present  squids,  but 
with  their  bodies  protected  by  a  light  shell,  swam  freely  every- 
where. They  seem  to  have  lacked  the  parrot-beak  of  modern 
forms.  This  lack  was  no  serious  defect;  they  could  swallow 
any  of  their  competitors  whole. 

Crustacea,  now  represented  by  crabs  and  lobsters,  crept  or 
swam,  had  jointed  legs,  and  facetted  eyes,  and  were  somewhat 
protected  by  a  coat  of  Hght  plate  armor  mainly  used  for  the 
attachment  of  muscles. 

Swimming  in  the  water  above,  possibly  banished  to  fresh- 
water, were  animals  perhaps  as  large  and  as  dangerous  as  small 
earthworms.  They  were  kept  away  from  the  rich  feeding- 
grounds  of  the  seabottom  by  crabs  and  mollusks.  They  lived 
on  the  minute  forms  of  life  which  they  could  sift  from  the 
water.  These  were  the  primitive  chordata,  ancestors  of  the 
vertebrates.  Fascinating  worms  were  abundant,  and  prob- 
ably other  interesting  forms.  These  we  must  neglect.  They 
do  not  concern  us  and  have  mostly  died  out. 

Can  we  pick  the  winner?  Which  of  these  competitors  is 
the  fittest,  most  likely  to  survive  and  hold  first  place.     We 


io8  "THE  COMING  OF  MAN 

must  judge  entirely  by  what  we  have  before  us;  all  later 
time  is  supposed  to  be  in  the  future.  The  free-swimming 
chordate  form  is  already  distanced  and  hopelessly  beaten. 
What  possible  chance  has  he?  The  crab  is  a  fairly  protected 
moving  animal  whose  jointed  legs  and  eyes  promise  a  higher 
organization  and  successful  future. 

The  cuttlefishes  have  everything  their  own  way.  They 
can  swim  swiftly,  have  sufficient  protection,  and  abundance  of 
food  and  rapid  reproduction.  They  possess  all  the  natural 
advantages  in  environment,  are  lords  of  the  rich  sea-bottom, 
nine  points  of  the  law;  and  they  have  size  and  strength  to 
maintain  possession,  which  should  constitute  the  tenth.  But 
let  us  not  fail  to  pay  homage  to  our  friend  the  clam,  ''  re- 
clining semi-somnolent "  in  safety,  peace  and  quiet  joy.  He 
has  already  attained  perfection. 

We  are  hard-headed,  practical  scientists,  we  know  nothing 
of  the  future.  We  judge  by  what  we  see,  and  by  the  teach- 
ings of  the  past.  Some  form  of  mollusk  must  be  the  fittest, 
there  is  hope  for  the  crustacean,  for  the  chordata  defeat  and 
our  pity. 

We  revisit  the  earth  millions  of  years  later  not  far  from 
the  close  of  Palaeozoic  time.  The  land  forming  the  eastern 
portion  of  the  United  States  oscillates  not  far  from  sea-level. 
The  great  cephalopod  mollusks  still  teem.  They  have 
changed  form  slightly,  but  little  in  structure.  Crustacea  have 
taken  on  a  more  modern  appearance.  Spiders  and  insects  have 
appeared  on  land. 

The  marked  change  and  progress  has  been  in  the  descend- 
ants of  the  insignificant  chordata.  Sharks  have  appeared 
with  fairly  developed  internal  locomotive  skeleton  offering 
attachment  to  heavy  bands  of  muscles,  with  paired  fins,  stout 
jaws  armed  with  pointed  teeth,  with  large  sense  organs  and 
no  mean  brain. 

There  are  ganoid  fishes,  like  our  garpikes  and  sturgeons, 
superior  to  the  sharks  in  some  respects.  They  have  an  air- 
bladder  which  can  be,  and  often  is,  used  as  a  lung.  Some  are 
mail-clad,  others  unprotected.     They  are  driving  their  weaker 


"THE  SURVIVAL  OF  "THE  FU'rES'T        109 

brethren   far  up  the  streams  into  the  pools  and  marshes. 

Here  the  air  dissolved  in  the  water  is  foul ;  they  use  the  gills 
less  and  the  air-bladder  or  lung  more.  In  the  water,  filled  with 
roots  and  stems  of  weeds,  the  paddle-like  fins  become  jointed 
and  are  used  partly  as  legs.  Finally  during  the  recurring  pe- 
riods of  drought,  they  will  crawl  out  on  land,  somewhat  like 
the  salamanders  of  to-day. 

Which  will  survive  and  make  the  next  great  upward  step? 
The  cuttlefish  is  still  hearty  and  vigorous,  but  has  made 
little,  if  any  progress.  The  insect  has  improved  on  the  crab. 
The  future  evidently  belongs  to  the  vertebrates,  descended 
from  the  distanced  and  defeated  primitive  chordate.  The 
ganoid  is  promising,  the  shark  is  a  conspicuous  and  marvellous 
engine  of  speed  and  destruction.  A  salamander,  driven  out 
on  land,  crawling  among  great  club-mosses  and  weeds  is  not  an 
inspiring  spectacle. 

We  come  down  to  early  Mesozoic  time.  The  eastern  por- 
tions of  North  America  are  now  well  above  tide-water,  but  long 
bays  extend  far  into  the  land.  Back  from  the  shore,  marsh 
and  dry  upland  alternate.  Sharks  and  ganoids  still  persist 
as  well  as  cephalopods.  But  the  amphibian  has  descendants 
with  whom  these  could  never  compete.  Reptiles  are  every- 
where prominent  and  dominant.  They  swim  in  the  seas  and 
appear  to  be  exterminating  the  surface-seeking  ganoids.  On 
the  land  they  run  on  four  legs  or  stride  on  two.  They  own 
the  rich  jungles  and  rivers  with  their  banks  or  broad  valleys 
and  bordering  uplands.  Some  of  them  fly  with  bat-Hke  wings. 
Others  are  of  huge  bulk  defended  by  coats  of  mail.  Life  is 
easy  and  food  abundant.  Our  present  reptiles  give  but  a 
poor  conception  of  the  size  and  power,  swiftness  and  strength 
of  these  ancient  forms.  Birds  are  flying  through  the  air, 
though,  perhaps,  still  somewhat  reptilian  in  appearance.  We 
see  a  few  small,  scaly  mammals,  not  one  of  them  a  match  for 
the  reptiles. 

Once  more  which  is  the  fittest?  Later  forms  have  not  yet 
arrived  to  give  us  the  answer  to  our  riddle.  The  reptiles 
offer  a  great  variety  of  conspicuous  forms,  some  one  of  which 


no  tHE  COMING  OF  MAN 

ought  to  succeed.  Birds  fulfill  certain  conditions  of  fitness 
better.  We  remember  that  the  whole  process  of  evolution 
down  to  this  time  has  tended  to  the  production  of  muscular 
forms  with  well  framed  skeletons  possessing  swift  locomo- 
tion. The  bird  is  a  high-pressure  engine  of  marvellous  swift- 
ness, with  hot  blood,  keen  sense-organs  and  a  good  or  ex- 
cellent brain.  The  bird  is  certainly  of  a  far  finer  and  higher 
type  than  the  reptile.  What  chance  has  the  small  plodding 
mammal? 

We  are  in  Tertiary  or  Cenozoic  time.  The  exit  or  disap- 
pearance of  the  higher  reptiles  is  as  striking  as  their  entrance 
to  the  stage;  only  the  inferior  have  survived.  Birds,  like 
seme  precocious  children,  have  not  ^fulfilled  the  promise 
of  their  youth.  The  prize  will  surely  fall  to  some  mam- 
mal. 

There  are  splendid  carnivora,  cats  or  tigers,  with  powerful, 
sleek,  agile,  athletic  bodies  and  long  saber-like  canine  teeth. 
The  herbivorous  horses  and  deer  have  developed  long  slender 
legs,  and  have  taken  to  flight.  The  rodents  have  sought  refuge 
in  holes  in  the  ground  or  on  the  trees.  In  the  trees  we  see 
lemurs  or  apes,  our  "  furry  arboreal  ancestors  with  pointed 
ears."  The  cats  are  having  their  day.  They  deserve  it. 
But  in  Quaternary,  Psychozoic  time  the  descendant  of  lemur 
and  ape  reigns  unchallenged  and  supreme.  Even  the  cat  can- 
not hold  its  ground  before  the  wits,  traps,  and  missiles  of 
man. 

It  is  a  strange  story.  If  we  have  pictured  to  ourselves  the 
struggle  for  existence  as  a  mere  battle  of  brute  with  brute, 
where  the  fittest  were  always  the  strongest  and  biggest,  we 
have  erred  completely.  In  fact  the  race  is  never  to  the  swift 
nor  the  battle  to  the  strong.  Nature  herself  in  the  long  run 
repudiates  the  strictly  gladiatorial  theory  of  the  struggle  for 
existence.  So  repeated  and  constant  an  outcome  must  have 
some  explanation. 

One  important  fact  has  been  already  noticed.  The  external 
protective  skeleton  of  the  mollusk  was  simple,  easy  to  build, 
gave  immediate  tangible  advantage,  and  developed  rapidly  but 


rHE  SURVIVAL  OF  "THE  FlT'TESr        m 

allowed  brief  progress.  The  internal  locomotive  skeleton  of 
chordata  was  difficult,  slow  of  development  and  in  conferring 
advantages,  but  full  of  almost  endless  possibilities  of  loco- 
motion, sense  and  brain.  Its  advantages  revealed  themselves 
only  after  long  and  wearisome  experimenting.  The  mollusk 
was  shovelling  gold  out  of  a  pocket,  the  vertebrate  working  a 
fissure  vein  where  the  ore,  poor  at  the  surface,  grew  richer  as 
it  went  deeper. 

We  remember  that  the  amphibian  under  great  difficulties 
and  disadvantages  was  on  his  way  to  warm  blood,  a  better 
brain  and  freer  life.  These  all  came  very  slowly,  without 
observation.  The  disadvantages  seemed  at  first  greater  than 
the  gains.  The  same  .  is  true  of  mammalian  structure  and 
habit  in  general  and  particularly  of  primates. 

It  is  evident  that  we  cannot  distinguish  too  sharply  and  em- 
phatically between  dominance  and  fitness.  The  dominant 
forms,  hulking  reptiles  or  sleek  cats,  are  those  which  are  reap- 
ing to  the  full  the  use  of  some  power  already  attained  at  the 
expense  or  to  the  neglect  of  some  higher,  deep-seated  power, 
as  yet  very  incompletely  developed  and  offering  few  tangible 
gains,  but  of  far  greater  capacity.  They  gain  present  pros- 
perity at  the  expense  of  all  future  progress.  Such  prosperity 
and  dominance  must  be  brief.  The  experiment  can  end  only 
in  bankruptcy  and  failure.  Reptile  and  cat  must  in  time  yield 
to  the  brainier  form,  but  not  in  one  year  or  millennium.  If  we 
focus  our  attention  on  any  one  point  of  time  alone,  present  or 
past,  if  we  are  near-sighted,  the  dominant  form  will  surely 
appear  to  us  to  be  the  fittest,  although  its  doom  is  sure  and 
downfall  near. 

The  fittest  is  the  form  which  maintains  and  improves  the 
best  attainments  of  its  ancestors  and  puts  its  chief  develop- 
mental energy  into  the  organs  of  highest  capacity  and  pos- 
sibihties.  It  lives  up  to  and  expresses  the  last  term  of  the 
logic  of  evolution.  But  such  organs,  or  similar  institutions, 
are  necessarily  complex  and  of  slow  growth.  At  first  the  re- 
wards of  progress  are  small,  the  disadvantages  and  cost  of  their 
development  are  evident  and  not  few.     The  fittest  usually 


112  "THE  COMING  OF  MAN 

seems  to  be  making  a  losing  bargain,  while  the  dominant  is 
conspicuous  and  his  success  dazzling. 

Why  did  any  of  our  ancestors  choose  a  path  which  sacrificed 
present  ease  and  comfort  to  future  attainment?  They  had 
no  choice.  Stronger  and  better  armed  ganoids  forced  the  prim- 
itive amphibian  ancestor  up-stream,  and  climatic  changes 
drove  him  out  on  land.  Reptiles  taught  primitive  mammals 
to  be  watchful  and  wary.  Morally  speaking  the  carnivora, 
or  possibly  reptiles,  boosted  our  primate  ancestor  into  arboreal 
Hfe. 

Nature's  system  of  education  is  very  simple.  She  puts  the 
progressive  form  under  conditions  where  it  must  die  or  form 
habits  and  environment,  which  will  insure  exercise  of  the 
higher  powers  and  the  development  of  the  highest  organs. 
Many  shrink  back,  balk  or  fail  and  die.  Some,  perhaps  only 
a  saving  remnant,  survive  and  attain  the  next  higher  stage. 
Here  again  the  same  process  is  repeated. 

Such  a  system  of  education  is  severe  and  unsparing.  Our 
ancestors  were  well  fed  and  contented  in  the  water,  they  were 
driven  out  on  land.  They  had  just  begun  to  enjoy  life  on 
the  ground  when  they  were  driven  into  the  trees,  whence  they 
were  later  driven  down  again.  Nature's  fairy  wand  is  the 
spur  of  necessity.  She  treated  all  our  ancestors  much  as  Poor 
Joe  in  Bleak  House  complained  that  Detective  Bucket  had 
treated  him:  ^'  He  always  kept  a-chivying  of  me  and  a-tell- 
ing  me  to  move  on." 

The  chivying  process  seems  necessary.  When  a  group  of 
animals  has  remained  for  a  time  under  conditions  where 
struggle  and  effort  are  unnecessary,  further  development  seems 
impossible  for  them.  Life  acts  like  wet  plaster.  As  long  as 
you  stir  it  vigorously,  you  can  mold  it  as  you  will.  Set  it 
down  and  it  soon  hardens  into  a  useless  mass. 

The  pressure  of  adversity  does  more  than  prevent  individu- 
als or  groups  from  straying  from  the  right  path  and  to  con- 
fine them  to  the  line  of  progress.  We  have  already  noticed 
in  the  case  of  man  that  his  deepest  needs  have  often  or  usually 
been  his  best  assets.     A  certain  amount  of  hardship  and  ad- 


"THE  SURVIVAL  OF  "THE  FlTtESr        113 

versity  is  essential  to  complete  development.  It  has  been 
well  said  that  the  surroundings  which  are  most  favorable  to 
progress  are  those  which  offer  the  greatest  number  and  variety 
of  stimuli  which  will  continually  call  into  action  all  the  powers 
of  the  individual.  A  life  of  ease  means  lack  of  stimuli  to  ac- 
tion, hence  the  full  development  of  but  few  powers.  Power 
and  efficiency  come  only  through  vigorous  exercise,  and 
strength  through  struggle.  Nature  sifts  out  the  weak-willed  as 
well  as  the  weak-bodied. 

The  obstacles  may  be  so  great  that  it  is  almost  or  quite  im- 
possible for  the  average  form  to  overcome  them  and  survive, 
in  this  case  few  are  spared.  But  progress  comes  only  through 
the  steady  testing  and  training  of  the  growing  power  and  com- 
pelling it  to  accomplish  to-day  what  was  impossible  a  year 
or  millennium  ago. 

"  Suffering  and  hardship  do  not,  as  a  rule,  abate  the  love 
of  life;  they  seem  on  the  contrary  to  give  it  a  larger  zest. 
The  sovereign  source  of  melancholy  is  repletion.  Need  and 
struggle  are  what  excite  and  inspire  us;  the  hour  of  triumph 
is  what  brings  the  void."  ^ 

Yet  Nature's  severity  is  really  kindness.  She  is  really  con- 
tinually spurring  her  favorites  to  a  higher  and  keener  enjoy- 
ment. Idleness  is  unbearable  to  the  healthy,  lack  of  all  hard- 
ship unendurable  to  the  strong.  Normal  exercise  of  any  organ 
always  brings  pleasure;  the  higher  the  power  exercised  the 
higher  the  joy.  This  is  one  reason  why  the  motives  peculiar 
to  each  higher  plane  of  life  supersede  and  dominate  those  of 
the  lower. 

Why  has  no  form  ever  enjoyed  dominance  for  a  time  and 
then  added  the  higher  power  and  become  also  fit?  Why  did 
not  some  ancient  cat  develop  tooth  and  claw  as  long  as  these 
were  highly  profitable  and  then  devote  its  energy  to  develop- 
ing a  thinking  brain?  Fortunately  no  cat  ever  did  this,  other- 
wise learned  societies  would  have  met  on  the  back  fence  and 
you  and  I  have  been  spared  the  malady  of  thought.  There 
are  many  reasons.     Only  a  very  prophetic  cat  could  have  fore- 

1 126:47. 


114  "fHE  COMING  OF  MAN 

seen  any  advantage  in  such  a  change.  If  it  could  have  awak- 
ened to  a  dim  feeling  of  such  a  need,  it  would  have  been  too 
late  for  it  to  turn  back. 

Nature  seems  to  say  to  every  group  of  animals:  "  Try 
whatever  experiment  you  will,  along  any  line.  But  once 
started  you  must  keep  to  that  line  and  discover  its  logical  re- 
sult." That  is  the  "  law  of  the  jungle."  A  wise,  if  illiterate, 
minister  said  that  the  most  important  text  in  the  Bible  was: 
^'  They  got  a-going,  and  they  couldn't  stop."  The  fittest  is 
always  the  parent,  never  the  child  of  the  dominant. 

Dominance  and  progress  are  mutually  incompatible  in  the 
same  species.  You  can  very  easily  fail  of  both,  you  can 
choose  between  them,  you  cannot  have  both.  Fitness  may  in 
the  end  triumph,  it  probably  or  surely  will,  you  will  not  live 
to  see  it.  This  seems  true  of  animals  and  men.  The  logic 
of  evolution  applies  to  man  just  as  well  as  to  cats  and  apes. 

Man,  like  the  animal,  must  cultivate  steadily  and  at  all 
cost  the  powers  which  raise  him  above  all  lower  stages.  He 
must  find  higher  and  more  difficult  exercises  and  worthier 
forms,  expressions  and  habits  than  his  ancestors  attained, 
otherwise  there  is  no  progress.  He  must  cultivate  above  all 
others  the  powers  which  have  the  broadest  and  highest  ca- 
pacities and  possibilities.  These  must  be  united  in  one  sym- 
metrical person  controlled  by  these  highest  rational  powers. 
Such  are  the  moral  and  religious  powers  which  have  raised 
man  to  his  present  lofty  position,  and  have  indefinite  capacity 
for  future  development. 

Socrates  is  being  entertained  at  a  banquet  in  the  house  of 
Gorgias.  The  conversation  turns  first  on  rhetoric,  then  on 
justice  and  life.  Callicles  has  exhorted  Socrates  to  practice 
the  art  of  dealing  with  realities,  and  that  which  shall  gain  him 
a  reputation  for  common  sense;  to  emulate  not  the  men  who 
waste  their  time  in  probing  useless  questions  concerning  truth 
and  justice,  but  rather  those  who  possess  means  and  reputa- 
tion and  all  other  good  things  of  life.  He  has  assured  Soc- 
rates that  the  end  of  all  his  work  will  be  sentence  in  the 
courts  and  death  by  the  vote  of  his  fellow-citizens.     One  after 


"THE  SURVIVAL  OF  tHE  Fir^ESr        115 

another  Socrates  silences  his  opponents  and  closes  the  dis- 
cussion with  a  statement  of  his  own  belief: 

"  So,  bidding  farewell  to  those  things  which  most  men  count 
honors,  and  looking  onward  to  the  truth,  I  shall  earnestly  en- 
deavor as  far  as  may  be  in  goodness  and  thus  live  and  thus, 
when  the  time  comes,  die.  .  .  .  The  best  way  of  life  is  to 
practice  justice  and  every  other  virtue  and  so  to  live  and  so 
to  die.  This  way,  then,  we  will  follow,  and  we  will  call  on  all 
other  men  to  do  the  same;  not  that  way  which  you  believe  in 
and  call  upon  me  to  follow  for  that  way,  Callicles,  is  worth- 
less." 

Callicles  and  Socrates  differed  in  their  standards  of  value. 
There  are  many  molluscan  or  carnivorous  systems  of  phi- 
losophy abroad  to-day.  But  their  defenders  fail  to  give  due 
credit  to  the  original  discoverers  and  practitioners  of  their 
school.  Socrates'  language  sounds  strange  and  foreign  to 
them.  It  is  not  up  to  date.  But  were  their  systems  not  dis- 
proved as  inadequate  by  human  experiment  and  experience  be- 
fore the  close  of  Palaeolithic  time?  It  is  the  old  story:  So- 
crates standing  for  fitness,  Callicles  for  dominance. 

Callicles  was  a  shrewd  prophet.  Socrates  was  condemned 
to  death  and  refused  to  listen  to  his  friends  who  had  bribed  the 
jailer  to  let  him  escape.  He  could  hear  the  pleading  of  the 
laws,  ''  ringing  in  his  ears  like  the  music  of  the  flutes  of 
the  Corybants  and  nothing  else."  He  drank  the  hemlock 
cheerfully,  and  died  the  gentleman  that  he  always  had  been. 

Says  Wundt  concerning  the  goal  and  ends  of  life  according 
to  the  philosophy  of  Plato  and  Aristotle:  "  The  end  and  goal 
of  life  is  a  harmoniously  developed  soul  whose  powers  are  not 
divided  into  hostile  camps  but  every  one  subject  to  the  whole; 
all  guided  by  the  highest  power,  the  Reason,  which  alone  has 
absolute  value  and  worth  in  itself.  .  .  .  Thus  arises  a  har- 
monious soul,  a  personality  complete  in  itself.  Only  he  who 
has  attained  this  stage  possesses  all  the  virtues  even  the 
highest,  wisdom,  the  virtue  of  the  rational  aspects  of  the 
soul."  2     But   Greek   literature,   art  and  philosophy   are   all 


ii6  'THE  COMING  OF  MAN 

"back-numbers."  We  have  already  quoted  Huxley's  defini- 
tion of  a  liberally  educated  man. 

Says  William  James,  the  Pragmatist:  "  In  all  ages  the  man 
whose  determinations  are  swayed  by  reference  to  the  most 
distant  end  has  been  held  to  possess  the  highest  inteUigence. 
The  tramp  who  lives  from  hour  to  hour;  the  Bohemian  whose 
engagements  are  from  day  to  day;  the  bachelor  who  builds 
for  a  single  life;  the  father  who  acts  for  another  generation; 
the  patriot  who  thinks  of  a  whole  community  and  many  gen- 
erations; and  finally  the  philosopher  and  saint  whose  cares 
are  for  humanity  and  eternity  —  these  range  themselves  in  an 
unbroken  hierarchy."^ 

James'  patriot,  to  say  nothing  of  philosopher  and  saint, 
seems  to  me  to  have  caught  and  been  persuaded  of  a  vision 
and  promise  so  grand,  dim,  distant,  hazy  and  uncertain  in 
outline,  to  be  investing  so  largely  in  uncertain  because  distant 
"  futures,"  that  he  must  be  walking  far  more  by  faith  than 
by  sight.  But  we  will  let  that  pass.  Any  description  of  a 
great  life  is  always  cold,  inadequate  and  unsatisfactory.  We 
are  really  stirred  by  the  idea  of  fitness  only  when  we  see  it 
incarnated  and  embodied  in  a  Lincoln  or  Socrates  or  any  one 
of  Heine's  "  apostolic  succession  of  great  souls." 

But  these  men  have  a  far  higher  use.  Nature  trained  man 
to  the  discovery  and  practice  of  fitness  largely  through  tribal 
pressure  and  compulsion.  Then  she  set  him  free  to  follow  his 
own  conscience  as  a  moral  person,  who  cannot  be  forced  into 
the  highest  stage  of  progress.  He  can  be  drawn  or  attracted 
by  loyalty  to  a  hero  worthy  of  the  name. 

The  dominant  forms  pass  away,  the  fittest  endure,  strive 
and  progress.  Nature  seems  to  look  upon  the  dominant  as  a 
necessary  but  temporary  nuisance  and  evil  of  which  she  makes 
the  best  use  she  can.  She  turns  such  to  account  by  making 
them  police  the  road  or  stimulate  and  exercise  the  fit.  Then 
she  weeds  them  out  and  kills  them  off.  No  dominant  form  is 
ever  the  ancestor  of  anything  higher,  or  of  any  descendant 
worth  our  attention.    No  one  of  our  ancestors  has  ever  been 

3  127:101. 


rHE  SURVIVAL  OF  tHE  Fir^ESt        117 

dominant.  It  is  not  in  our  heredity,  it  is  always  an  acquired 
character.  In  most  of  the  views  and  theories  not  to  mention 
practices,  of  to-day  dominance  and  fitness  are  regarded  as 
synonyms.     They  are  really  antitheses,  mutually  incompatible. 

All  our  mammalian  ancestors,  and  birds  and  mammals  gen- 
erally, have  been  social  forms  giving  mutual  aid.  Is  Huxley 
speaking  the  truth  when  he  says:  ''  The  practice  of  that  which 
is  ethically  best  —  what  we  call  goodness  or  virtue  —  involves 
a  course  of  conduct  which  in  all  respects  is  opposed  to  that 
which  leads  to  success  in  the  cosmic  struggle  for  existence  "  ? 

Says  Thomson:  "In  thinking  of  the 'process  of  Natural 
Selection  it  is  of  real  importance  to  recognize,  with  Darwin, 
that  the  phrase  '  struggle  for  existence '  is  used  '  in  a  wide 
and  metaphorical  sense,'  including  much  more  than  an  inter- 
necine scramble  for  the  necessaries  of  Hfe, —  including  indeed 
all  endeavors  for  preservation  and  welfare.  Not  only  of  the 
individual,  but  the  offspring  as  well.  ...  It  is  much  more  than 
a  long-drawn-out  series  of  family  quarrels  ending  in  more 
room  and  food  for  a  few  surviving  members:  it  may  often  be 
more  justly  described  as  an  endeavor  after  well-being.  And 
what  may  have  been  primarily  self-regarding  impulses  be- 
come replaced  by  others  which  are  distinctively  species  main- 
taining, the  self  failing  to  find  realization  apart  from  its 
family  and  its  kindred."  "  The  reason  why  we  are  so  much 
concerned  with  getting  away  from  an  ultra-Darwinian  picture 
of  Nature  is  not  merely  because  it  seems  to  us  inaccurate,  but 
because  the  libellous  conception  projected  from  human  society 
upon  Nature  has  been  brought  back  again  to  society  as  a  guide 
and  sanction  of  human  conduct,  even  as  an  ethical  and  polit- 
ical ideal."  ^ 

And  yet  during  the  building  up  of  the  neuro-muscular  sys- 
tem by  worms  and  early  vertebrates,  there  was  much  of  the 
gladiatorial  struggle  and  competition  to  the  death.  There  are 
undeserved  misery,  pain,  suffering  and  injustice  still.  We 
cannot  deny  it.  We  are  here  to  remove  or  at  least  mitigate 
them.    Let  us  assume  honestly  and  squarely  our  share  of  the 

*K.  164. 


ii8  fHE  COMING  OF  MAN 

blame  even  if  we  can  hardly  pronounce  Nature  innocent. 
There  is  something  wild,  untamed  in  us  both.  We  must  get 
on  together,  as  best  we  can.  But  let  us  never  forget  that  in 
the  end  and  long  run  Nature  is  always  on  the  side  of  fitness.^ 
Is  it,  perhaps,  the  old  story  of  Gareth  and  Lynnette? 

Nature  is  masked,  and  life  is  an  enigma,  always  a  struggle, 
frequently  a  death-grapple  in  the  dark.  It  is  altogether  too 
big  and  grand  for  our  understanding.  Every  attempt  to  re- 
duce it  to  a  scheme  is  doomed  to  failure.  Perhaps  it  was  so 
intended  and  planned.  It  always  has  been  and  always  will 
be  an  investment  in  futures,  an  adventure;  and  we  would  not 
have  it  otherwise.  In  the  end,  in  spite  of  her  jeers,  pricks 
and  buffets,  Nature  is  for  us,  not  against  us.  This  is  enough. 
Impavidi  progrediamur.     Gentlemen-adventurers  all. 

Says  Bergson:  "  All  the  living  hold  together,  and  all  yield 
to  the  same  tremendous  push.  The  animal  takes  its  stand  on 
the  plant,  man  bestrides  animality,  and  the  whole  of  humanity, 
in  space  and  in  time,  is  one  immense  army  galloping  beside 
and  before  and  behind  each  of  us  in  an  overwhelming  charge, 
able  to  beat  down  every  resistance  and  clear  the  most  formi- 
dable obstacles,  perhaps  even  death."  ^ 

5  T.  228. 
^I  271. 


XI 

PERFECT  HEALTH 

A  TEACHER  of  philosophy  once  said  that  Aristotle 
after  hearing  and  contributing  to  the  endless  fas- 
cinating discussions  in  Plato's  Academy  came  away 
with  a  passion  for  the  obvious.  There  is  nothing  dazzling 
about  obvious  truths  any  more  than  there  is  about  fitness. 
Hence  we  are  quite  apt  to  forget  both.  But  they  are  always 
worth  thinking  about.  Indeed  a  passion  for  the  obvious  is 
one  aspect  of  genius.  Aristotle  declared  that  it  was  obvious 
that  a  certain  amount  of  wealth  was  better  than  poverty,  and 
that  health  was  better  than  disease. 

Health  is  evidently  the  first  prerequisite  to  fitness.  This 
also  is  a  truism.  It  is  equally  evident  that  perfect  health  is 
very  rare.  Statistics  collected  during  the  Civil  War  showed 
that  only  about  one-third  of  the  men  drafted  for  service  were 
fit  to  bear  arms,  and  many  of  these  proved  unable  to  endure 
the  hardships  and  strain  of  a  soldier's  life.  Probably  not 
one  in  ten  was  what  an  athlete  would  call  fit.  Nearly  all 
showed  minor  weaknesses. 

All  of  us  remember  certain  red-letter  days  in  our  lives.  We 
awoke  in  the  morning  from  a  refreshing  sleep.  The  air 
seemed  to  tingle  with  energy,  we  were  eager  to  begin  the  day's 
work;  and  what  a  day  it  was!  Work  became  play  and  went 
on  rapidly,  easily,  successfully.  Difficulties  and  hard  prob- 
lems only  stimulated  instead  of  depressing  us.  Obstacles 
which  had  blocked  our  paths  dwindled  and  disappeared.  It 
was  our  mountain  top  of  vision,  and  we  went  in  its  strength 
many  days.  Fears  cast  no  shadows,  we  saw  everything  clear 
and  in  due  perspective. 

119 


JS^' 


120  THE  COMING  OF  MAN 

It  is  difficult  to  estimate  the  value  of  such  a  day.  Was  it 
five  or  twenty-five  times  as  great  as  our  average?  It  was  our 
day  of  as  nearly  perfect  health  as  is  possible  for  us.  Such 
days  are  few  and  rare. 

No  physician  could  have  told  us  why  the  next  day  was  dull. 
The  physical  change  was  probably  slight,  and  may  have  af- 
fected a  very  small  part  of  our  bodies:  a  Hmited  slight  in- 
flammation, a  very  little  uneasiness,  a  local  weakness  or  strain, 
a  slight  general  lassitude  or  weariness.  It  was  only  a  slight 
indisposition,  but  it  cut  down  the  zest  and  value  of  our  work 
far  below  our  average.  Our  health  was  still  good,  but  not 
perfect. 

The  trained  athlete  is  well  aware  of  these  facts.  A  very 
slight  breach  of  training  would  not  perceptibly  injure  his 
health,  but  it  might  easily  cost  him  the  race.  He  must  be  at 
the  top-notch  of  condition.  It  is  obvious  that  a  slight  physical 
betterment  may  double  our  efficiency. 

Our  strength  and  endurance  are  measured  largely  by  our 
weakest  organ  or  part,  like  the  weakest  Knk  in  a  chain.  If 
our  lungs  furnish  only  fifty  per  cent,  of  the  needed  oxygen, 
good  muscles  cannot  do  their  full  amount  of  work,  and  will 
probably  degenerate.  If  our  feeble  stomachs  can  digest  only 
''  educator  "  crackers  and  broth,  where  is  the  fuel  for  the  mi- 
croscopic neuro-muscular  engines?  We  need  a  trained  athletic 
digestive  system  as  the  foundation  of  health  and  greatness. 

We  must  say  the  same  of  every  organ.  Temporary  weak- 
ness of  any  smallest  part  is  immediately  telegraphed  to  the 
nerve-centers  and  depresses  the  tone  of  the  whole  body.  This 
universal  tyranny  of  the  weakest  part  is  probably  most  severe 
in  individuals  of  highest  culture  and  greatest  refinement. 
When  the  deacon  built  a  shay  whose  weakest  part  was  just  as 
strong  as  the  rest,  he  made  a  very  serviceable  as  well  as  durable 
machine.     All  this  is  obvious. 

We  are  slowly  learning  the  supreme  importance  of  propor- 
tion and  symmetry  in  the  human  body.  The  old-fashioned 
gymnast  was  a  monstrosity,  with  overhanging  shoulders,  bulg- 
ing arms  and  shipwrecky  legs.     He  looked  like  a  triangle  walk- 


PERFECT  HEALrn  121 

ing  on  its  apex.  The  modern  athlete  would  furnish  a  model 
for  a  Greek  statue.  Proportion,  symmetry  and  harmony  are 
the  foundation  and  essence  of  both  strength  and  beauty. 

Our  American  maxim,  "You  can't  have  too  much  of  a 
good  thing,"  is  obviously  untrue.  Said  the  genial  and  wise 
old  writer  of  Ecclesiastes:  ''Be  not  righteous  overmuch, 
wherefore  :.houldst  thou  destroy  thyself?  Be  not  overmuch 
wicked,  neither  be  thou  foolish,  why  shouldst  thou  die  before 
thy  time?  "  The  wise  old  Greeks  said:  ''  Too  much  of  noth- 
ing.'' Symmetry  and  proportion  giving  strength  and  beauty 
are  necessary  for  the  mind  as  well  as  the  body.  Mentally 
many  of  us  are  monstrosities,  cripples  or  "  reversed  cripples." 

What  constitutes  a  healthy  nervous  system?  What  would 
be  its  most  marked  characters,  if  we  could  discover  so  rare 
a  jewel?  Its  end  and  purpose,  quite  obviously,  is  to  secure 
that  every  incoming  stimulus  shall  call  forth  from  some  muscle 
or  muscles  an  adequate  response,  one  suited  to  the  emergency. 

A  fly  alights  on  my  nose  or  head,  stimulating  my  skin.  His 
tickling  is  disagreeable  and  his  presence  undesirable.  It  is 
not  necessary  to  think  much  about  him.  Almost  unconsciously 
I  wave  my  hand,  and  he  departs.  I  may  do  far  more;  smite 
at  him  and  excite  myself  by  addressing  winged  words  as  he 
sails  gaily  away.     I  have  wasted  valuable  energy. 

Our  whole  day's  work  is  no  more  nor  less  than  a  series  of 
responses  to  stimuli  coming  from  without  or  within.  The  suc- 
cess "of  the  day's  work  is  measured  by  the  adequacy  of  the 
responses,  for  which,  and  usually  not  for  the  stimulus,  we  are 
responsible.     The  stimulus  is  merely  an  occasion. 

I  awake  in  the  morning,  and  the  first  horrible  responsibility 
of  the  day  confronts  me.  I  must  get  up.  Just  how  or  why  I 
do  it,  I  do  not  know.  I  find  myself  on  the  floor.  The  chilly 
air  stimulates  me  to  dress;  the  pangs  of  hunger  call  me  to 
breakfast,  and  the  bell  to  my  work.  So  it  goes  all  day  long, 
stimulus  and  response. 

We  are  continually  pelted  by  stimuli,  like  rich  men  besieged 
by  begging  letters.  To  respond  to  every  one  means  nervous 
bankruptcy  and  insanity.     Our  first  question  must  be:  is  it 


122  tHE  COMING  OF  MAN 

really  worth  while  to  do  anything  about  it?  Pick  out  of  a 
college  class  of  one  hundred  men  the  ten  who  appear  the  lazi- 
est, and  you  will  have  nearly  all  the  best  trained  athletes. 
Most  of  us,  by  lively  hustling,  waste  enough  nervous  energy 
in  one  day  to  last  us  a  week;  and  then  wonder  what  it  was  all 
about.  Hustling  is  conspicuous  but  not  therefore  fit.  There 
is  "power  in  repose."  We  hurry  and  worry;  and  these,  ac- 
cording to  the  Arab  proverb,  are  the  Devil.  Don't  waste  the 
time  of  a  strong  man  who  tells  you  he  has  plenty  to  spare. 
Try  that  experiment  on  the  man  who  has  none;  you  will  do 
far  less  harm.  A  healthy  nervous  system  is  first  of  all  eco- 
nomical. There  is  in  it  nothing  of  the  hair-trigger  releasing 
an  explosion  at  the  slightest  touch;  nor  is  it  like  a  sponge 
giving  out  only  under  pressure.     "  Too  much  of  nothing." 

Continual  responses  smooth  grooves  of  least  resistance  in 
our  nervous  system  until  all  its  energy  tends  to  pour  out  along 
these  paths.  Hence  arise  habits  which  we  have  formed  or  al- 
lowed to  grow.  William  James  has  spoken  of  them  far  bet- 
ter than  I  can.^  The  only  genuine  gentleman  is  the  man  who 
could  not  be  anything  else.     This  too  is  obvious. 

The  different  centers  in  our  nervous  systems  may  be  com- 
pared to  the  local  centers  or  switch-boards  of  the  telephone 
system  of  a  great  city,  all  connected  at  one  center.  It  might 
better  be  compared  to  the  system  of  control  and  communica- 
tion, the  organization,  of  a  great  army  whose  soldiers  would 
correspond  to  our  muscular  fibrils.  There  are  headquarters 
for  companies,  regiments,  brigades  and  divisions.  Behind  and 
above  all  are  the  headquarters  of  the  general  in  supreme  com- 
mand, a  chief  of  staff.  So  we  find  in  our  bodies  a  hierarchy 
of  centers  of  different  levels,  a  "  reservoir  of  indetermination," 
all  having  their  final  seat  of  control  in  the  thinking  mind.^ 

It  is  a  long  circuit  for  impulses  through  this  highest  center. 
Many  or  most  never  reach  it,  but  are  shifted  or  arrested 
farther  down.  In  this  highest  region  there  is  opportunity  for 
delay,  for  mutual  inhibition  or  conflicting  impulses.     There 

1 127. 

2  135  Chaps.  II.  V. 


PERFECT  HEAL'TH  123 

are  always  several  or  many  outlets  for  an  outgoing  impulse, 
leading  to  very  different  responses  in  word  or  deed.  Time 
and  occasion  must  be  taken  into  account;  it  is  sometimes  best 
to  wait  a  little.  Many  or  most  of  the  impulses  are  discarded, 
or  neglected  and  straightway  forgotten;  some  are  perceived, 
recognized  and  stored  up  in  the  memory  until  time  and  occa- 
sion are  ripe.  There  is  much  sifting  and  selection;  and  we 
may  well  take  heed  what  and  how  we  hear,  feel  and  re- 
member. When  the  response  comes,  it  often  seems  a  com- 
posite result  of  many  stimuli,  no  one  of  which  alone  would 
have  called  it  forth  in  its  final  form.  Here  are  the  place,  op- 
portunity and  necessity  for  the  control  of  the  marvellous  sys- 
tem by  a  perfectly  healthy  mind. 

Now  our  phraseology  changes.  We  no  longer  speak  merely 
of  vibrations  or  material  impulses,  but  somehow  in  correla- 
tion with  these  we  recognize  that  mind  has  appeared  on  the 
stage.  Aladdin  has  rubbed  his  lamp.  We  are  intelligent, 
feeling  and  willing  beings;  and  these  powers  or  aspects  gov- 
ern our  actions.  Physical  health  demands  the  highest  and 
most  harmonious  development  of  all  our  organs.  One  weak 
spot  may  destroy  the  efficiency  of  the  whole  body.  Must 
not  the  same  be  true  of  the  mind?  This  gives  room  for  al- 
most infinite  variety  of  possibilities. 

We  say  that  our  first  need  is  to  see  things  exactly  and 
clearly  as  they  are.  This  is  well  and  easily  said,  and  it  does 
not  seem  to  demand  too  much  from  a  healthy  vision.  But  it 
is  not  easy,  though  it  may  be  natural.  We  all  see  through  the 
variegated  glasses  of  heredity  and  early  environment  and  edu- 
cation. Every  object  of  practical  interest  is  seen  through  the 
glass  of  prejudice,  and  the  prejudices  of  the  ignorant  are  mild 
and  harmless  compared  with  those  of  the  trained  specialist. 
We  see  it  from  our  own  standpoint,  rarely  in  its  true  perspec- 
tive, and  relations  with  the  whole;  never  from  all  sides  and 
in  its  place  in  time,  "  sub  specie  ceternitatis.''  The  blind  spots 
in  our  mortal  eyes,  due  to  defects  of  inheritance,  training,  dis- 
use or  misuse  and  degeneration,  render  many  of  its  finest 
points  invisible.     The  same  object  or   event  has  a  totally 


124  "^^^  COMING  OF  MAN 

different  appearance,  meaning,  value  and  interest  for  different 
men  and  women,  and  for  the  same  man  at  two  o'clock  of  a 
restless  night  and  an  hour  after  breakfast  the  next  morning. 
Finally,  the  great  thing  is  to  see  men,  women,  and  especially 
boys  and  girls,  not  only  as  they  are  but  as  they  may  become. 
Without  this  vision  men  and  people  perish. 

We  hear  much,  and  cannot  think  too  much,  of  the  psychology 
of  interest.^  Interest  is  focussed  and  absorbed  attention; 
and  focussed  attention  means  will,  purpose,  and  action  along 
the  line  of  the  absorbing,  controlling  interest.  The  object  of 
interest,  has  great  value  in  our  eyes,  though  others  may  not 
share  our  estimate.  Most  of  us  have  some  hazy,  more  or 
less  distorted  sense  of  values.  Few  of  us  have  any  fixed  in- 
telligent scale  by  which  we  measure  values  of  different  degrees 
and  especially  of  different  quality  and  kind.  That  which  is  of 
highest  value  and  therefore  of  most  intense  interest  and  closest 
attention  becomes  the  end  of  life. 

The  Westminster  Catechism  took  it  for  granted  that  man 
has  a  chief  end.  This  view  is  now  a  back-number,  though  we 
may  return  to  it.  Our  denial  or  forgetfulness  of  it  has  dis- 
advantages. The  architecture  of  our  life,  if  we  have  any,  is 
of  the  Queen  Anne  style,  mostly  additions  and  departures; 
and  the  same  defect  mars  our  minor  efforts.  To  change  our 
illustration,  our  course  even  in  fairest  weather  is  that  of  a 
boat  carrying  much  sail,  beating  against  the  wind.  The  zig- 
zag seems  to  be  our  line  of  beauty,  as  ''  jazz  "  is  our  ideal  of 
melody. 

This  sense  of  values  was  a  characteristic  of  the  Hebrew  and 
Greek  mind.  The  whole  ''  wisdom  literature  "  is  a  study  of 
values.  It  underlies  all  the  teaching  of  the  Master.  His 
great  question  is:  "  What  shall  it  profit  a  man?  "  The  hero 
of  his  most  striking  parables  is  the  man  who  knows  a  really 
good  thing  when  he  discovers  it,  a  unique  pearl,  a  hidden 
treasure.  He  was  a  dealer  in  futures  and  loved  such.  The 
same  is  true  of  the  wisdom  of  Greek  philosophy,  art  and  litera- 
ture, with  its  marvellous  clearness,  wholeness  and  sanity  of 

^  id2.  114.  188. 


PERFECT  HEALTH  125 

view,  its  perspective  and  sense  of  symmetry  and  proportion,  its 
appraisals  and  appreciations  in  art,  literature  and  life.  But 
why  waste  time  on  Hebrew  or  Greek  thought?  We  are  pure- 
blood,  modern,  nordic  Aryans. 

Evidently  the  foundation  of  perfect  sanity  or  mental  health 
is  a  high  harmonious  development  of  all  our  mental  and 
physical  powers;  a  well  proportioned,  beautiful,  strong  body 
with  a  sound  mind  whose  fundamental  character  is  a  wisdom 
which  is  a  sure  touchstone  of  values  in  ends  and  means.  How 
this  can  be  attained,  what  is  the  source  of  such  wisdom,  or  the 
path  to  her  house  is  another  question. 

A  shrewd  old  country  doctor  used  to  say  to  a  young  mother: 
^'  Madam,  don't  forget  that  Nature  has  made  that  baby  about 
right.  Don't  you  spoil  it."  All  babies  are  not  made  and 
born  all  right.  Many  fail  to  measure  up  to  Nature's  standards 
and  die,  others  are  killed  off  during  the  first  year.  The  con- 
stitution of  the  baby  is  an  hereditary  endowment  and  weak  or 
strong  accordingly.  "  Our  constitution  is  an  entailed  estate 
which  must  pass  to  our  heirs  with  all  its  worth  and  encum- 
brances." If  the  children  are  to  be  healthy,  training  must 
begin  with  the  parents. 

What  does  Nature  demand  of  the  baby?  If  he  eats,  digests, 
sleeps,  breathes  and  grows  well  he  is  doing  his  whole  duty. 
We  test  him  mainly  by  the  steadiness  of  his  growth  in  weight. 
Soon  he  begins  to  sit  up  and  to  kick,  and  his  shoulder  muscles 
swing  his  arms  like  flails.  There  is  implanted  in  him  a  ten- 
dency to  use  every  organ  just  as  soon  as  it  is  mature  enough 
to  be  stimulated  by  exercise  to  further  growth.  When  it  has 
had  exercise  enough,  it  and  he  tire.  The  early  use  of  the 
heavy  fundamental  muscles  of  trunk,  shoulder  and  thigh 
stimulates  general  health  and  strength.  It  stimulates  also  the 
develoDment  of  the  fundamental  nerve-centers,  and  fortifies 
the  whole  nervous  system  against  weakness  and  collapse. 
Here  the  foundations  of  health  and  strength  are  laid  deep  and 
strong.  The  baby  and  young  child  are  chiefly  animal.  Let 
them  be  healthy  animals  in  a  healthy  environment. 


126  "THE  COMING  OF  MAN 

The  kindergarten  period  is  predominantly  sensory,  but  may 
easily  be  made  too  much  so.  The  young  child  enjoys  run- 
ning and  will  soon  begin  to  climb,  possibly  in  honor  of  his 
arboreal  ancestors.  All  this  is  natural  and  developmental. 
Sensation,  imagination  and  imitation  mingle  in  varied  amounts 
in  the  activities  of  this  period. 

Between  seven  and  twelve  the  social  but  competitive  games 
appear.  Boys  and  girls  play  in  groups,  but  every  one  usually 
plays  for  himself.  Tag  and  other  running  games  are  the 
earliest.  These  still  involve  the  use  of  the  heavier  muscles 
and  exercise  the  largest  amount  of  muscular  tissue  with  the 
smallest  expenditure  of  nervous  energy.  These  exercises 
stimulate  the  growth  of  heart,  lungs  and  all  the  visceral  organs 
without  over-taxing  the  very  immature  brain.  If  one  organ 
is  undersized,  it  has  to  work  the  hardest  to  meet  the  require- 
ments of  the  game  and  receives  the  most  exercise  and  stimulus. 
Then  the  child  tires  and  rests.  No  one  can  fail  to  notice  in 
healthy  children  how  rapidly  periods  of  most  vigorous  exercise 
alternate  with  change  of  play  or  complete  rest.  The  body 
grows  fast  and  symmetrically,  and  the  child  waxes  strong. 

Play  still  furnishes  the  best  mental  training.  Watch  a  game 
of  tag.  The  sense-organs  are  all  alert.  The  attention  is  well 
focussed.  The  will  is  being  trained.  The  child  must  size  up 
the  situation,  and  grasp  the  opportunity  once  for  all.  He  can- 
not stand  shivering  on  the  brink  of  action.  Thinking,  willing 
and  doing  are  united.  The  same  movement  is  repeated  until 
perfected,  and  with  undiminished  interest.  The  child  forgets 
himself  and  loses  shyness  and  self-consciousness  in  the  game. 
As  he  grows  older,  the  opportunity  for  skill,  thought,  plan  and 
strategy,  constantly  increases.  He  is  learning  far  more  than 
the  rudiments  of  the  art  and  science  of  success  in  life. 

Here  he  must  act  on  his  own  initiative.  There  is  no  one 
to  keep  telling  him  just  what  to  do  or  more  frequently  what 
not  to  do.  He  is  placed  more  nearly  in  the  position  of  the 
boy  on  the  old-fashioned  farm,  who  had  to  help  himself  out 
of  every  emergency  as  best  he  could.  The  heaviest  losses  in 
our  modern  education  lie  along  these  lines. 


PERFECT  HEALTH  127 

The  kindergarten  period  is  one  of  comparative  peace.  Now 
the  child  is  learning  to  get  on  with  his  fellows.  He  is  finding 
how  much  he  can  claim  and  when  and  how  much  he  must 
yield;  and  how  to  yield  good-naturedly.  It  is  no  easy  lesson 
in  this  day  of  small  families.  Yet  it  must  be  learned,  or  he 
will  grow  up  to  sorrow.  A  somewhat  robust  friend  of  mine  is 
apt  to  explain  the  weaknesses  and  defects  of  certain  adults  by 
saying  sadly:  "  They  did  not  play  enough  with  bad  boys  on 
the  village  street  when  they  were  young-"  There  is  usually  a 
grain  of  truth  even  in  such  a  heresy.  The  result  of  the  ex- 
perience is  worth  far  more  than  it  costs,  even  if  the  price  is 
sometimes  tears  and  bloodshed  or  a  black  eye. 

Here  the  boy  and  girl  receive  their  first  lessons  in  the  grand- 
est art  or  science  of  life,  that  of  making  many  firm  friend- 
ships. If  they  do  not  learn  to  make  them  now,  they  probably 
never  will. 

The  conception  of  fair  and  unfair  play  is  almost  the  first 
genuine  and  spontaneous  moral  distinction  which  the  child 
makes.  He  is  still  very  hazy  in  his  ideas  as  to  rights  of  prop- 
erty and  far  from  clear  in  his  theories  as  to  the  necessity  of 
truthfulness.  But  he  is  sure  that  the  boy  who  does  not  play 
fair  or  cheats  is  mean,  which  is  his  word  for  total  depravity. 
This  germ  has  marvellous  possibilities,  if  fostered  and  cul- 
tivated. If  you  despise  or  neglect  it,  if  you  attempt  to  re- 
place it  by  your  own  adult  system  of  ethics,  the  boy  and  girl 
lose  faith  in  their  own  conceptions  of  morality,  they  can 
neither  understand  nor  appreciate  yours;  they  are  left  without 
any  system  which  appeals  to  them,  and  their  last  state  is 
worse  than  their  first.  Indeed  they  have  fallen  from  a  high 
estate.     Despise  not  the  day  of  small  things. 

We  must  carry  the  spirit  of  play  through  adult  Hfe.  Joy, 
like  sunlight,  promotes  health.  The  work  from  which  the  play 
element  is  absent  can  never  be  of  the  highest  order.  Art  is 
like  play  in  that  it  is  its  own  reward.  Opportunity  is  an  even 
larger  and  higher  word  than  duty,  and  opportunity  must  be 

enjoyed. 

About  ten  or  eleven  new  instincts  begin  to  emerge.    We 


128  "THE  COMING  OF  MAN 

name  only  one,  the  collecting  instinct.  This  leads  to  the  close 
study  of  nature  and  of  many  realms  of  human  activity.  All 
these  studies  broaden  life  and  increase  its  joy. 

We  must  hasten  on  to  the  close  of  school  life  to  the  last 
part  of  the  period  of  adolescence  in  the  study  of  which  Hall 
has  done  so  fine  pioneer  work.  Boy  and  girl  have  attained 
nearly  their  adult  size  and  proportions  after  alternating  periods 
of  increase  of  height  and  girth.  They  feel  the  rising  tide  of 
vigor  and  power.  They  are  still  far  from  adult  endurance, 
when  the  tissues  have  toughened  and  hardened.  One  great 
danger  is  the  exhausting  over-excitement  of  too  intense  social 
life.     Here  again  moderation. 

The  games  of  the  period  are  equally  characteristic.  They 
are  group  games  played  with  sides,  each  of  which  represents 
a  gang,  class,  school  or  town.  They  demand  high  physical 
development,  self-control,  quickness,  endurance;  more  com- 
plex movements,  the  use  of  finer  muscles  and  of  higher  centers 
in  the  brain.  Strategy  counts  heavily.  The  boy  plays  with 
his  head,  and  is  a  practical  psychologist;  recognizing  the 
strong  and  weak  points  in  physique,  temper,  character  and  v/it 
of  every  opponent.  Not  a  movement  or  gesture  escapes 
him. 

He  is  a  member  of  a  team  and  learns  to  submit  to  criticism, 
training,  discipline.  We  intellectuals  may  well  grant  that  there 
must  be  some  reason  for  the  preference  by  captains  of  industry 
of  young  men  who  have  excelled  in  athletics.  It  is  a  very 
suggestive  phenomenon.  The  chief  sin  of  big  business  is  that 
it  absorbs  the  men  whom  we  need  as  teachers  and  preachers 
to  educate  the  generation  which  will  make  the  America  of 
twenty  years  hence. 

The  attainment  of  full  growth  and  muscular  power,  the  large 
heart  and  lungs,  the  well  oxygenated  blood,  the  activity  and 
young  vitality  of  all  the  tissues,  give  buoyancy  and  courage, 
a  sense  of  power  and  longing  for  entire  freedom  and  revolt 
against  control.  A  new  world  opens  before  the  boy  as  fresh 
and  fair  as  on  the  morning  of  creation,  a  new  life  boundless 
in  opportunity,  endless  in  scope  and  time.     He  is  sure  that 


PERFECT  HEALTH  129 

plodding  parents  and  teachers  cannot  understand  him  or  the 
glories  of  life.     Unfortunately  he  is  usually  right. 

He  must  gird  his  loins  and  go  whither  he  will;  must  taste 
of  every  experience,  is  willing  to  meet  both  joy  and  pain  with 
''  frolic  welcome."  He  has  not  yet  been  saddened  by  expe- 
rience or  disillusioned  by  disappointment,  nor  trained  to  en- 
durance. 

Nature  is  loosing  her  leading  strings  and  setting  him  free 
to  forge  his  own  character.  In  old  times  the  adolescent  ran 
away  to  sea,  now  we  send  him  to  college.  Here,  beyond  the 
benevolent  watch  of  neighbors,  he  begins  to  experiment  in 
life,  to  make  his  blunders,  to  find  himself,  his  strong  and  weak 
points,  and  to  grow  into  a  man. 

Authority  has  only  a  superficial  hold  upon  him,  tradition 
still  less.  The  influences  of  early  home  training  rooted  deep 
in  his  subconscious  life  are  exceedingly  powerful  for  good, 
sometimes  for  evil.  Yet  he  cannot  or  will  not  stand  alone. 
Individual  judgment  and  conscience  develop  very  slowly.  To 
understand  him  and  his  actions  under  certain  conditions  you 
must  study  the  psychology  of  the  mob. 

He  is  a  mixture  of  contradictions,  an  enigma  to  himself  and 
us.  He  might  well  say:  ''  My  name  is  legion  for  we  are 
many."  In  the  ferment  of  youth  all  that  is  trifling  and  worth- 
less comes  to  the  surface,  the  strong  and  sweet  are  hidden  be- 
neath the  froth. 

He  has  no  trace  of  a  conception  of  the  meaning  and  value 
of  time,  lives  in  the  present  moment,  cannot  play  a  waiting 
game.  If  the  sun  shines  to-day,  it  will  always  be  cloudless; 
if  the  maid  of  his  adoration  has  frowned,  he  is  in  despair;  she 
will  never  smile  again.  He  betrays  all  his  momentary  conceits 
and  foolishness;  his  deep  humiliation  over  his  blunders,  fail- 
ures and  sins  he  keeps  to  himself. 

Nature  puts  a  shell  around  chicken-embryos  to  prevent  med- 
dling intrusion  with  her  vital  processes.  She  puts  a  similar 
shell  around  the  adolescent.  His  confidence  is  reserved  for 
friends  of  his  own  age.  On  the  whole  it  is  best  so,  our  med- 
dHng  fingers  might  mar  the  process.     He  must  fight  his  own 


130  "THE  COMING  OF  MAN 

battles.  If  his  father  will  help  him,  let  the  father  renew  his 
youth;  it  will  not  hurt  him. 

It  is  the  epoch  of  the  reign  not  of  cold  judgment  but  of  the 
heart  out  of  which  are  the  issues  of  life.  Feelings  and  emo- 
tions are  racial,  crystallized  out  of  ages  of  human  experience, 
sifted,  tried  and  tested.  Opinions,  and  most  of  our  theories, 
are  individual,  of  yesterday,  and  will  be  forgotten  to-morrow. 
Trust  his  feelings.  Deal  honestly  and  squarely,  play  fair  with 
him;  and  the  harder  you  apply  curb  and  spur,  the  better  he 
will  like  you  in  the  end.  He  is  searching  for  a  leader,  and 
usually,  like  St.  Christopher,  he  will  begin  by  following  the 
strongest.     In  time  he  will  find  his  hero  and  king. 

He  is  overflowing  with  loyalty.  He  has  probably  been  con- 
verted at  fourteen  or  sixteen,  the  years  of  rapid  increase  in 
girths  and  lung-capacity,  marking  rapid  increase  in  vitality 
and  vigor.  Give  him  a  virile  Christianity,  and  you  have  the 
stuff  of  a  hero  and  martyr.     If  he  is  healthy,  he  is  an  idealist. 

He  is  a  fine  target  for  criticism.  We  can  hardly  fail  to 
hit  and  probably  wound  him,  if  that  is  what  we  wish;  though 
he  will  probably  not  show  it,  and  our  missiles  may 
rebound.  If  we  wish  to  correct  him  we  must  look  back  a 
few  years,  remember  and  confess  some  of  our  own  vast  igno- 
rance, a  few  choice  specimens  of  our  blunders  and  follies,  our 
perversity  and  stupidity,  not  to  mention  sins  and  transgres- 
sions. Then  he  may  listen  to  us.  If  we  are  too  superior,  we 
cannot  meet  him  on  his  own  ground  of  experience.  If  he  has 
little  respect  for  us  and  our  opinions,  the  fault  may  be  partly 
ours.     This,  again,  seems  quite  obvious. 

At  his  best  he  is  a  very  attractive  and  exasperating,  crude, 
immature,  inexperienced  irresponsible  young  barbarian,  re- 
minding us  of  the  primitive  Achaean  or  Celt.  As  the  Irish 
woman  said  of  her  son:  "  'Twixt  the  plague  of  his  living 
and  the  fear  of  his  dying  I  have  no  peace  in  life."  We  enjoy 
the  vigor  and  boldness  of  his  thought  and  expression;  the 
freshness  and  freedom  of  his  argument  or  assertion  untram- 
meled  by  logic,  facts  or  experience.     He  will  have  experience. 


PERFECT  HEAL'TH  131 

he  is  having  it.  Let  us  rejoice  in  his  courage.  We  cannot 
help  liking  him.  On  the  whole,  he  has  a  fairly  healthy  mind 
in  a  very  healthy  body.  '^  Eden  isn't  quite  done  yet,"  as  Mark 
Tapley  said  to  Martin  Chuzzlewit,  but  under  proper  cultiva- 
tion it  is  a  field  of  great  promise. 

Has  not  Nature  done  her  full  share  by  implanting  com- 
pelling instincts  and  tendencies?  Has  she  not  started  boy 
and  girl  on  the  road  to  fitness?  If  they  complete  the  line  of 
development  marked  out  by  her  in  play-instincts,  will  they 
not  come  to  something  pretty  fine  and  grand?  Is  failure,  if 
it  comes,  due  to  Nature  or  to  bad  nurture,  or  the  clumsiness 
of  artificial  education,  the  emptiness  and  staleness  of  artificial 
environment?  Environment  is  largely  forced  upon  the  child, 
in  spite  of  himself  and  Nature.  Let  us  be  men  enough  not 
to  try  to  throw  on  Nature  the  blame  for  our  own  weakness, 
faults  and  sins;  that  is  childish. 

Our  young  friend  revisits  us  at  thirty.  Physically  he  looks 
as  vigorous  as  at  twenty  and  with  more  endurance.  As  an 
athlete  his  powers  have  probably  culminated.  Whether  this 
is  necessary,  I  dare  not  say.  He  loses  more  hours  and  days 
from  his  work  through  slight  indisposition,  brief  acute  attacks 
of  indigestion,  bronchitis,  and  similar  ailments.  Nature  is 
seeking  out  his  weakest  point  and  attacking  it,  soon  she  will 
lay  siege.  His  body  is  passing  its  prime.  It  holds  its  highest 
level  for  only  a  few  years.  The  effect  on  his  elan  and  morale 
is  not  good.  Dr.  Johnson  probably  exaggerated  somewhat 
when  he  said:  ''  Sir,  a  sick  man  is  always  a  scoundrel  ";  it 
is  not  always  true. 

He  has  found  his  place  and  calling,  and  is  successful  in  his 
work:  doctor,  lawyer,  merchant,  or  chief.  We  are  proud  of 
him.  He  is  a  master  in  his  craft  and  knows  his  business. 
Too  often  he  has  focussed  his  attention  steadily  on  this  point. 
His  bundle  of  interests  has  shrunken  accordingly.  He  no 
longer  cares  for  art,  music,  literature,  or  general  science,  or 
for  questions  outside  of  his  own  calling.  His  sympathies  have 
narrowed.     He  reminds  us  somewhat  of  a  horse  driven  in 


132  fHE  COMING  OF  MAN 

blinders  along  a  dusty  road  with  green  fields  and  flowers  on 
both  sides  invisible  to  him.  He  is  growing  near-sighted  from 
watching  his  steps. 

He  has  found  the  world  different  from  his  youthful  expecta- 
tions. Now  he  knows  it  as  it  is  and  can  smile  at  his  youthful 
dreams  and  illusions.  He  is  a  realist  accepting  the  world. 
He  conforms  resolutely  to  the  actual.  Specialization  is  neces- 
sary, every  one  must  do  his  bit.  The  more  minute  the  spe- 
ciality, the  narrower  and  more  complete  and  absorbing  the 
specialization,  the  greater  the  rewards.  The  ''  bit "  is  not  big 
enough  to  allow  breadth  and  symm.etry  of  development. 
Mentally  the  man  now  reminds  us  of  the  old-fashioned  gym- 
nast trained  to  use  only  a  few  muscles,  and  perform  a  few 
striking  tricks  or  feats  on  one  piece  of  apparatus  amid  the 
applause  of  the  spectators.  He  is  on  the  road  to  dominance, 
a  highway  "  paved  with  good  intentions."  He  is  in  danger 
of  becoming  a  torso,  a  cripple;  or  an  even  worse  monstrosity, 
a  "  reversed  cripple."  He  may  yet  be  forced  to  plead  the  old 
excuse :  "  As  thy  servant  was  busy  here  and  there,  the  man 
was  gone."     This  danger  besets  every  calling. 

We  cannot  all  do  all  things.  Every  one  must  do  his  little 
part,  and  contribute  only  his  best.  Every  man  must  spe- 
cialize in  his  work.  But  even  in  work,  and  especially  in 
leisure  —  which,  according  to  Aristotle,  is  the  end  of  all  labor, 
—  no  part  or  power  of  body  or  mind  can  say  to  any  other 
part:  "  I  have  no  need  of  thee."  The  neglected,  disused  or 
misused,  part  weakens  and  is  likely  to  become  diseased.  It 
remains  the  weakest  spot  and  will  tyrannize  over  us  and  drag 
us  down. 

We  are  all  of  us  victims  of  over-adaptation  to  a  narrow  and 
artificial,  unnatural  environment.  Through  over-adaptation 
we  become  passive  creatures  and  creations  of  present  surround- 
ings, and  environment,  not  their  masters  and  moulders.  The 
artificial  fashions  and  conventions  of  every  era  pass  quickly 
away. 

Biologically  this  has  spelled,  sometimes  temporary  domi- 
nance to  a  few,  always  degeneration  and  failure  in  the  end. 


PERFECr  HEALTH  133 

Our  present  standards  are  obviously  purely  economic,  regard- 
less of  any  not  immediate  future.  But  even  the  economist 
may  grant  to  the  biologist  that  it  would  be  well  if  this  arrest 
of  growth,  over-speciaHzation,  decay  of  powers,  and  asymmetry, 
should  be  postponed  as  long  and  mitigated  as  far  as  possible. 

There  is  a  large  grain  of  truth  in  Osier's  theory;  William 
James  tells  us  that  old-fogeyism  begins  earlier  than  most  of 
us  think,  usually  about  twenty-five.*  As  a  rule,  the  longer 
the  period  of  development,  and  the  later  the  attainment  of 
maturity,  the  higher  is  the  adult  form.  Precocity  in  develop- 
ment is  a  dangerous  symptom.  The  height  of  a  man's  at- 
tainments depends  largely  upon  how  long  he  can  continue  to 
grow.  Hence  the  value  of  young  men  who  persist  in  boyish 
immaturity  and  seem  unable  to  find  themselves.  They  re- 
mind us  of  the  generalized  form  from  which,  rather  than  from 
the  specialized,  the  higher  stage  always  springs-  Specialized 
forms  are  barren,  and  over-specialized  are  unhealthy  and  de- 
cadent.^ This  is  the  biological  rule  for  species,  and  it  seems 
equally  appHcable  to  individuals.  The  only  powers  on  which 
one  can  afford  to  specialize  are  the  highest  manifestations  of 
the  spirit,  and  a  proper  healthy  development  of  these  ought  to 
imply  the  use  of  all  the  lower  powers. 

There  are  always  some  very  healthy  young  men  who  re- 
fuse to  allow  their  vocations  to  limit  their  sympathies  and  in- 
terests and  thus  stop  development.  They  maintain  their 
health  and  grow  long  after  others  have  begun  to  deteriorate. 
They  Hve  and  flourish  in  enjoyment  of  more  than  youthful 
vigor,  of  the  endurance  of  maturity  and  the  wisdom  of  old 
age,  until  they  are  cut  down  untimely  at  four-score  or  later, 
irrefutable  arguments  for  immortality.  They  always  retain 
their  youthful  courage,  enthusiasm  and  idealism.  Experience 
has  made  them  wise,  and  they  have  attained  a  steady,  in- 
domitable, infectious  hopefulness  impossible  to  youth.  They 
are  obstinate  believers  in  the  fine  and  good  which  they  dis- 
cover and  call  forth  in  men  and  in  a  goodly  world. 

4  142.  32.  46.  I.  133- 

5  142.  72. 


134  'fHE  COMING  OF  MAN 

Their  humor  is  a  symptom  of  long  experience  well  used, 
of  shrewd,  broad  views,  kindly  amused  sympathy  and  right 
perspective;  in  one  word,  of  wisdom.  They  seem  to  think 
that  the  chief  reward  of  Hfe,  if  not  its  chief  end,  is  the  joy 
of  living.  Somehow  they  find  or  make  it  exceedingly  attrac- 
tive, even  if  their  "  success  "  in  life  may  not  equal  that  of 
men  who  through  exploitation  and  over-adaptation  have  at- 
tained dominance. 

They  are  especially  attractive  to  youth.  We  found  it  good 
to  be  with  them,  for  virtue  and  healing  went  out  from  them. 
Their  strength  is  "  as  the  shadow  of  a  great  rock  in  a  weary 
land."  There  is  always  something  infectious  about  them,  and 
people  press  to  them  to  be  infected;  though  they  rarely  preach, 
and  never  have  been  caught  setting  an  example. 

Is  it  possible  that  such  men  ^  are  the  real  leaven  of  society, 
rather  than  the  reformers,  example-setters,  teachers  and 
preachers,  educators,  legislators  and  even  the  saints  and  phi- 
losophers? Are  they  the  ones  who  bring  in  the  dawning  en- 
vironment of  a  healthier  and  better  world  with  which  legis- 
lators and  statesmen,  and  even  practical  men  must  reckon? 
Are  they  the  coming  men? 

It  does  not  seem  impossible  when  we  remember  that  when 
law  had  proved  inadequate  and  weak,  and  philosophy  could 
not  lift  men,  and  thinkers  had  become  discouraged,  a  Jewish 
carpenter  threw  one  perfectly  healthy,  symmetrical  and  infec- 
tious life  into  human  society,  which  spread  and  seems  destined 
to  turn  this  old  world  of  ours  right-side-up.  If  his  audacious 
experiment  does  not  succeed  it  is  hard  to  imagine  what  can. 
It  must  succeed.  Man  is  surely  coming,  though  he  has  not 
yet  arrived. 

Let  us  not  mistake  dominance  for  fitness.  We  live  in  a 
world  of  space,  extension,  form  and  size.  Here  bigness  counts. 
Of  the  extension,  form  and  size  of  mind  and  life  I  cannot 
conceive.  We  live  also  in  a  world  of  time,  duration  and  du- 
rability, hence  of  qualitative  characters  and  values.  We  can- 
not afford  to  leave  time  out  of  account  as  some  of  us  seem 

®E.  g.  Doctor  Edward  Hitchcock. 


PERFECT  HEALTH  135 

to  do.  Here  quality  outranks  bigness  and  a  small,  enduring 
minority  with  time  on  its  side  will  win  in  the  end;  especially 
if  the  minority  is  an  apostolic  succession  of  great  infectious 
souls.  Nature  also  is  on  the  side  of  those  fittest,  and  will 
not  be  denied. 

Nature  obviously  urges  us  to  be  healthy,  fully-developed, 
symmetrical,  strong  and  beautiful  in  mind  and  body.  A  wise 
old  classical  teacher  used  to  explain  with  enthusiasm  to  suc- 
cessive classes  of  young  barbarians  that  in  Hebrew,  Greek 
and  Latin,  salvation  meant  restoration  to,  and  maintenance  of, 
perfect  health;  that  health,  haleness,  wholeness  and  holiness 
are  all  akin  in  root  and  synonymous.  Perhaps  he  was  quite 
right.    It  looks  so.    Salvete  et  valete. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

GENERAL 

A.  Darwin,  C.  H.,  Origin  of  Species,  London,  1859 

B.  Darwin,  C.  H.,  Descent  of  Man,  London,   1871 

C.  Wallace,  A.  R.,  Darwinism,  London,   1889 

D.  Huxley,  T.  H.,  Evidences  as  to  Man's  Place  in  Nature,  New 

York,  1863 

E.  Huxley,  T.  LI.,  Lay  Sermons,  Addresses  and  Reviews,  New 

York,  1873,  Especially,  "  A  Liberal  Education  "  and  "  Nat- 
ural Knowledge  " 

F.  Kropotkin,  P.  A,,  Mutual  Aid,  a  Factor  in  Evolution,  New 

York,  1903 

G.  Osborn,  H.   P.,   Origin  and  Evolution  of  Life,   New  York, 

1917 
H.  Lull,  R.  S.,  Organic  Evolution,  New  York,  1917,  Bibliography 

I.  Bergson,  H.,  Creative  Evolution,  New  York,  191 1 

J.  Thomson,  J,  A.,  A  System  of  Animate  Nature,  2  vols,  New 

York,   1920,  Bibliography 
K.  Thomson,  J.  A.,  The  Bible  of  Nature,  New  York,  1908 
L.    Geddes,  P.,  and  Thomson,  J.  A.,  Evolution,  New  York,  191 1 
M.  Jordan,  D.  S.  and  Kellogg,  V.  L.,  Evolution  and  Animal  Life, 

New  York,  1907,  Bibliography 
N.  Kellogg,  V.  L.,  Darzmtisni  To-day,  New  York,  1907 
O.  Conklin,  E.  G.,  The  Direction  of  Human  Evolution,  New  York, 

1921 
P.  Crampton,  H.  E.,  The  Doctrine  of  Evolution,  New  York,  191 1 
Q.  Morgan,  T.  H.,  Evolution  and  Adaptation,  New  York,   1903 
R.  Fiske,  J.,  Destiny  of  Man,  Boston,   1884 
S.  Fiske,  J.,  Through  Nature  to  God,  Boston,  1899 
T.  Smyth,  N.,  Through  Science  to  Faith 
U.  Wundt,    W.     (Trans.    Schaub,    E.    L.),    Elements    of   Folk 

Psychology,  New  York,   1916 

136 


BIBLIOGRAPHT  137 

V.  Wilder,  H.  H.,  History  of  the  Human  Body,  New  York,  1909 
W.  Wilder,  H.  H.,  Man's  Prehistoric  Past,  New  York,  1923 
X.  Newman,  H.  H.,  Evolution,  Genetics  and  Eugenics,  Chicago, 
1921 

CHAPTER    I.       THE    COMING   OF    LIFE.      See    G.   M.   H. 

1.  Minchin,  E.  A.,  Evolution  of  the  Cell,  Nature,  Oct.  14,  191 5 
Vol.  XCVI,  No.  2398,  p.  185 

2.  Conn,  H.  W.,  The  Story  of  Germ^Life,  New  York,  1913 

3.  Buchanan,  E.  D.,  and  R.  E.,  Bacteriology,  New  York,  1921 

4.  Calkins,  G.  N.,  The  Protozoa,  New  York,   192 1 

5.  Jennings,  H.  S.,  Biology,  New  York,  1914 

6.  Jennings,  H.   S.,  Behavior  of  the  Lower  Organisms,  New 
York,  191 5 


CHAPTER    II.      THE    COMING   OF   A    BACKBONE,   AND   CHAPTER   III, 
THE  RISE   OF   LAND   LIFE.      ScC   H. 

10.  Cockerell,  T.  D.,  Zoology,  New  York,  1920 

11.  Borraddale,  L.  A.,  Manual  of  Elementary  Zoology,  London, 
1920 

12.  Shull,    A.    P.,   Prinicples    of   Animal   Biology,    New    York, 
1920 

13.  Woodruff,  L.  L.,  Foundations  of  Biology,  New  York.  1Q22 

14.  Newman,  H.  H.,  Vertebrate  Zoology,  New  York,  1920 
Or  any  textbook  of  Zoology 

CHAPTER   IV.      THE    COMING  OF   SAVAGE    MAN. 

See  H.  R.  U.  V.     See  H. 

15.  Osborn,  H.  F.,  Age  of  Mammals,  New  York.  1910 

16.  Loomis,  F.   B..,  Adaptation  of  Primates,  Amer.   Nat.   Vol. 
XLV,  191 1,  p.  479 

17.  Barren,   J.,    "  Probable    Relations    of    Climatic    Changes    to 
Origin  of  Tertiary  Ape-Man,"  Sci.  Mon.,  1917.  p.  16,  N.  S. 

IV 


138  BIBLIOGRAPHT 

18.  Berry,  E.  W.,  "  Environment  of  Ape-Man,"  Sci.  Mon.,  N. 
S.  Vol.  Ill,  1916,  p.  161 

19.  Jones,  F.  W.,  Arboreal  Man,  New  York,  Chap.  XXXI,  p. 
196 

20.  Keith,  A.,  Ancient  Types  of  Man,  New  York,  191 1 

21.  Haddon,  A,  C,  Wanderings  of  Peoples,  Cambridge,  191 1 

22.  Haddon,  A.  C,  Races  of  Men  and  their  Distrihitiion,  New 
York,  1910 

22i.  Keane,  A.  H.,  Ethnology,  Cambridge,  1901 

24.  Osborn,  H.  F.,  Men  of  the  Old  Stone  Age,  New  York,  191 5 

25.  Sollas,  W.  J.,  Ancient  Hunters,  2d  Ed.,  London,  191 5 

26.  Elliott,  G.  F.  S.,  Prehistoric  Man  and  His  Stor^,  London, 

1915 
2y.  Herter,  C.  A.,  Biological  Aspects  of  Human  Problems,  New 

York,  191 1 

28.  Heineman,  T.  R.,  Psychic  and  Economic  Results  of  Man's 
Physical  Uprightness,  Pasadena,  Calif.,  1906 

29.  Bagehot,  W.,  Physics  and  Politics,  New  York,  1873 

30.  Drummond,  H.,  Ascent  of  Man,  New  York,  1894 

31.  Westermarck,  E.  A.,  History  of  Human  Marriage,  London, 
1901 


CHAPTER   V.      THE   DAWN   OF   CIVILIZATION. 

A.    RACES 

40.  Ripley,  W.  L.,  Races  of  Europe,  New  York,  1899 

41.  Sergi,  G.,  The  Mediterranean  Race,  London,  1901 

42.  Klassen,   K.,  Die   Volker  Ewopas  zur  jungeren  Steinzeit, 
Stuttgart,  1912,  Bibliography 

43.  Deniker,  J.,  The  Races  of  Man,  New  York,  1900,  cf.  23 


BIBLIOGRAPHT  139 


B.    STONE    MONUMENTS.      See    U. 

48.  Peet,  T.  E.,  Rude  Stone  Monuments,  New  York,  191 2 
49-  Avebury  Lord  (Sir  John  Lubbock)  Prehistoric  Times,  New 
York,  1 91 3 

50.  Windle,  B.  C.  A.,  Remains  of  Prehistoric  Age  in  England, 
London,  1904 

51.  Cartailhae,  E.,  La  France  Prehistoriqiie ,  Paris,  1889 


C.    GENERAL 

55.  Tyler,  J.  M.,  The  New  Stone  Age  in  Northern  Europe,  New 
York,   1 92 1,  Bibliography 

56.  Mason,  O.  T.,  IV Oman's  Share  in  Primitive  Culture,  New 
York,  1907,  Chap.  II 

57.  Hoernes,   M.,  Natur  A   und   Urgeschichte  des  Mcnschen. 
Vienna,  1899,  Vol.  I,  p.  535-591 

58.  Hehn,  V.,  KulturpHanzen  und  Hausthiere,  Berlin,   191 1 

59.  Hartley,  C.  G.   (Mrs.  W.  M.  Gallichan),  The  Position  of 
Woman  in  Primitive  Society,  London,  19 14 

60.  Ellis,  H.,  Man  and  Woman,  London,  4th  Ed.,  19 17 

61.  Morgan  J.  de,  Premieres  CiviU:;ations,  Paris,  1909 

62.  Sumner,  Folkways,  New  Haven 

63.  Harrison,  J.  E.,  Ancient  Art  and  Rituul,  New  York,  1913 

64.  Harrison,  J.  E.,  Themis,  Cambridge,  191 2 

65.  Harrison,  J.  E.,  Prolegomena  to  Greek  Religion,  Cambridge, 
1903 

66.  Murray,  G.,  Four  Stages  of  Greek  Religion,   New  York, 
1912 

6y.  Tylor,  E.  B.,  Primitive  Culture,  4th  Ed.,  New  ^'ork,   1903 

68.  Tylor,  E.  B.,  Anthropology,  New  York.   1916 

69.  Montgomery,   J.    E.    (Editor),   Religions   of  the   Past   and 
Present,   Philadelphia,   19 18,  Bibliography 


140  BIBLIOGRAPHT 

70.  Farnell,  L,  R.,  Greece  and  Babylon,  Edinburg,  191 1,  Chap- 
ter V 

71.  Frazer,  J.  G.,  The  Golden  Bough,  3rd  Ed.,  London,   1914, 
Bibliography 


CHAPTER  VI.       RISE  OF    PERSONALITY. 

74.  Aryans,  See  55.     Bibliography 

75.  Schrader,  O.,  Die  Indogermanen,  Leipsic,  1911 

y6.  Feist,    S.,   Kultiir,   Ansbreitiing   und   Herkitnft    der   Indo- 

germunen,  Berlin,  191 3 
yy.  Feist,  S.,  Europa  im  Lichtc  der  Vorgeschichtc,  Berlin,  1910 

78.  Hirt,    H.,   Die   Indogermancn,   2   vols.,    Strassburg,    1905- 
1907 

79.  Reinach,  S.,  Origine  des  Aryens,  Paris,  1892 

80.  Holmes,  T.  R.,  Ancient  Britain,  Oxford,  1907,  Chapter  III 

and  pp.  424-455 

81.  Myres,  J.  L.,  Dazvn  of  History,  New  York,  1911 

S2.  Demolins,  E.,  Les  Francais  d'AujourdJiui,  Paris,  1898 

83.  Demolins,  E.,  Les  Grandes  Routes  des  Peiiples,  Paris,  1901 

84.  Henley,  W.  E.,  Book  of  Verses,  New  York,  1891 


CHAPTER   VIII.       A,.    CONTROL    IN    ORGANISM 

90.  Huxley,  J.  S.,  The  Individual  in  the  Animal  Kingdom,  Cam- 
bridge, 1912 

91.  Ritter,  W.  E.,  The  Unity  of  the  Organism,  Boston,  191 9 

92.  Child,  C.  M.,  Individuality  in  Organisms,  Chicago,  191 5 

93.  Driesch,  H.,  (Trans.  Ogden,  C.  H.)  History  of  the  Theory 
of  Vitalism,  London,  1914 


BIBLIOGRAPHT  141 

94  Jenkinson,  J.  W.,  Experimental  Embryology,  Oxford,  1909, 
Chap.  V 

B.    NATURE 

95.  Shaler.  N.  S.,  Interpretation  of  Nature,  Boston,  1893 

96.  Wallace,  A.  R.,  The  World  of  Life,  New  York,  191 1 

97.  Wallace,   A.   R.,   Contributions   to   the    Theory   of  Natural 
Selection,  London,   1871 

98.  Wallace,  A.   R.,  Social  Environment  and  Moral  Progress, 
New  York,  19 13 

99.  Huxley,  T.  H.,  Evolution  and  Ethics,  New  York,  1905 
100.  Thomson,  J.  A.,   The  Bible  of  Nature,  New  York,   1908, 

pp.  210-235 
loi.  Sperry,  W.   L.,   The  Disciplines  of  Liberty,   New   Haven, 
1921,  p.  67 

102.  Nietzsche,  F.,  Complete  works,  (O.  Levy  Ed.)  2d  Ed.  New 
York,  1910,  Vol.  XI,  Thus  Spake  Zarathustra,  pp.  166,  171 

103.  Journal  of  Morphology,  Vol.  VHI,  pp.  649,  607 

104.  Wilson,  E.  B.,  The  Cell,  New  York,  2d  Ed.,  1904 


CHAPTER  IX.       MAN  AND  ENVIRONMENT. 

See  A.  C.  H.  L.  M.  Q. 
91,  96-98 

1 10.  Romanes,  G.  J.,  Darwin  and  After  Darwin,  4th  Ed.,  Chicago, 

1910 

111.  Baldwin,  J.  M.,  Development  and  Evolution,  New  York,  1902 

112.  Lock,  R.  H.,  Recent  Progress  in  the  Study  of  Variation, 
Heredity  and  Evolution,  New  York,  1916 

113.  Henderson,  L.  J.,   The  Fitness  of  the  Enzironmcnt,   New 

York,  191 3 

114.  Art,  Adaptation,  in  Hastings,  /.  A.  Encyclopedia  of  Reli- 
gion and  Ethics 


142  BIBLIOGRAPHT 

115.  Conklin,  E.  G.,  Heredity  and  Environment  in  the  Develop- 
ment of  Men,  Princeton,  191 5 

116.  Herbert  S.,  First  Principles  of  Evolution,  London,   1913 


CHAPTER  X.       SURVIVAL  OF  THE  FITTEST. 

See  A.  C.  H.  J.  L.  M. 

N.  P.  97,  no,  under  Natural  Selection 

125.  Wundt,  M.,  Griechische  Weltanschaung,  Leipsic,  1910 

126.  James,  W.,  Will  to  Believe 

127.  James,  W.,  Psychology,  New  York,  1893,  p.  loi 


CHAPTER   XI.       PERFECT    HEALTH.      Sce    126,    I27 

135.  Tyler,  J.  M.,  Growth  and  Education,  Boston,  1907,  Bibliog- 

raphy 

136.  Burk,   F.   L.  and   C.   F.,    The  Study   of   the   Kindergarten 
Problem,  San  Francisco,   1899 

137.  Burk,  F.  L.,  The  Kindergarten  Child,  Physically,  N.  E.  A. 

1899,  570.  cf.  1051 

138.  Hall,  G.  S.,  Contents  of  Children's  Minds  on  Entering  School, 

Pedagog,  Sem.  1891,  Vol.  139 

139.  Hall,  G.  S.,  Adolescence,  New  York,  1904 

140.  Hall,  G.  S.,  Youth,  New  York,  1906 

141.  Gulick,  L.  H.,  The  Efficient  Life,  New  York,  1907 

142.  James,  W.,  TaJks  to  Teachers,  New  York,  1905 


INDEX 


INDEX 


Adolescence,   128 

Adversity,   112 

Agriculture,  Rise  of,  55,  65 

Aladdin's  Lamp,  7,  123 

Alciope,  17 

Amoeba,  4 

Ammonites,  23 

Amphibia,  32,  73 

Annelids,  15,  72 

Apes,  38,  40,  76 

Arboreal  Life,  Results  of,  38 

Archenteron,  10 

Arthropoda,    IQ,   24,    72 

Aryans,  65,  125 

Athletes,  120,  122 

Baby,  Life  of,  125 

Bacteria,  2 

Bergson,  (Quoted),  7,  83,  84, 

Birds,  35,  74,  109 

Bone,  28,  84 

Brain,  25,  28,  39,  75,  78 

Bronze  Age,  67 

Carnivora,  (Cats),  47,  110 
Cartilage,  28 
Cells,  4,  11 
Cellulose,  9 
Cenozoic,  37 
Celts,  67 

Cephalopods,  22,  108 
Chellean  Period,  49 
Chlorophyl,  9 
Chordata,  27,   107 
Chromatin,  4 
Circulation,  14 
Clam,  19 

Coelenterates,  10,  71 
Coelom,  16 
Complexity  of  Man,  91 


Conformity  to  Environment,  97 
Conversion,   130 
Conscience,  Tribal,  56 
Cooperation,  Growth  of,  58 
Cretaceous  Period,  36,  41 
Cripples,  Reversed,  92-3,  132 
Cro-Magnon  Race,  51 
Ctenophores,   14 
Cuttle-fish,  22,   107 
Custom,  Cake  of  57,  58 

Dead,  Care  of,  50,  54 
Devonian  Period,  31 
Dinosaurs,  34 
Direction  in  Evolution,  83 
Discovery,  100 
Dog-fish,  29 
Dolmens,  54 
118  Dominance  and  Fitness,  111,  116,  134 

Dominant  Functions,  77 
Drummond,  47 
Dubois,  43 

Ear,  17 

Echidna,  36 

Ectoderm,   10 

Education,  natural,  81,  112 

artificial,  103 
Eggs,  Size  of,  2)2)^  35 
Ellis,  48 

Ends  and  Values,  124 
Entoderm,  10 
Environment,   97,    101,    131 

artificial,  102 
Enzymes,  3 
Evolution;  and  Revolution,  78;  Logic 

of,  71;  Direction  in,  83 
Eye,  17,  25,  100 

Family,  47,  49 
145 


146 


INDEX 


Fishes;    27,    Ganoids,    29-31,    Sharks, 

28,  108 
Fittest,  Survival  of,  111,  116,  134 
Flageliata,  7 
Folk-ways,  58 

Games,  126,  128 
Ganoids,  29-31 
Gasteropods,  21 
Glacial  Period,  46 
Gladiatorial  Theory,  110 
Goddess,  Cult  of,  63,  66 
Greek  Civilization,  67 
Grosgartach,  53 
Gymnasts,    120,    132 

Habits,  58,  122 
Hairs,  37 
Hall.  128 

Hamitic   Migrations,   45 
Hand,  38,  39 
Health,    119 
Heine,    (Quoted),  92 
Henley,    (Quoted),    69 
Heredity,  95 
Heroes,  Age  of,  68 
Hormones,  84 
Hunting,    (Collecting),  54 
Huxley,   (Quoted),  7,   70,  81,  85,  88, 
95,  117 

Insects,  24 
Intelligence,  75 
Interests,  124 
Iranian  Plateau,  42,  44 
Iron  Age,  68 

James,  (Quoted),  113,  116,  133 

Java,  43 

Johnson,  (Quoted),  131 

Kindergarten,  126 

Lake  Dwellings,  53 
Land-Life,   Rise   of,  31 
LuU,  (Quoted),  33,  41 


Mammals,  36,  74 

Marsupials,  37,  47 

Mass  vs.  Surface,  6 

Mesozoic  Era,  1,  36,  109 

Metamorphosis,  26 

Migrations;    of  Apes,  42,  of  Negroes 

44,  of  Hamites  and  Semites,  45 
Mind,  122 

Mollusca,    19,    72,   107 
Momentum  of  Evolution,  114 
Murray,  on  Primitive  Religion,  60 
Muscle,  14,  16,  20,  39,  78 
Mysteries,  61 

Nageli,  86 

Natural  Selection,  86 

Nature,  88,  94,  112,  116,  118,  131,  135 

Neanderthal  Man,  46,  49 

Needs,  102,  112 

Negritos,  44 

Negros,  45 

Neo-Darwinians,  86 

Neo-Lamarckians,  87 

Neolithic  Period,  53,  64 

Nietzsche,  (Quoted),  92 

Nitrogen,  Fixation  of,  3 

Nucleus,  4 

Olympic  Religion,  62 
Osborn   (Quoted),  3,  44,   76 
Otolith  Vesicles,  17 
Over-Adaptation,  98,   103,  132 

Palaeolithic   Period,    51 
Palaeozoic  Era,  1,  107 
Parenchym,   14 
Periods,  Geologic,  1 
Perivisceral  Cavity,  16 
Personality,  69,  83 
Pigmies,  44 
Pithecanthropus,  43 
Plants,  8,  9 
Plato,  115 
Platyhelminthus,  13 
Platypus,  36 
Play,  126 
Pleistocene,  46 


INDEX 


HI 


Plutarch,   (Quoted),  63 
Precocity,    110 
Primates,  38,  41 
Progress,  106,   114 
Proportion,  120 
Protoplasm,  2 
Protophyta,  2 
Protozoa,  2,  4 
Psychozoic  Time,  110 
Pteropoda,  21 

Relations  to  Surroundings,  99 
Religion,  59,  62,  66 
Reproduction,  10,  14,  33 
Reptiles,  34,  74,  109 
Reversed  Cripples,  93,  132 

Schuchert,  (Quoted),  1 

Semites,  45 

Sense-organs,   14,   16,  25,  29,  100 

Sequence  of  Functions,  71,  79 

Sharks,  23,   28,  29,   108 

Skeleton,  19,  23,  2.7,  28,  32 

Social  Life,  57 

Socrates  and  Callicles,  114 

Specialization,  132 

Squids,  23,  107 

Stages  in  Human  Evolution,  77 


Stimuli,  121 

Struggle  for  existence,  79 

Surroundings    and    Environment,    99, 

105 
Symmetry,  91,  120 

Taboo,   59 

Thomson,   (Quoted),  117 

Totem,  68 

Tribal  Conscience,  56 

Tribes,  56 

Ungulates,  47 

Vacuoles,  4 

Values,  124 

Variation,  87 

Vertebrates,   19,  23,   27,   73 

Volvox,  7,   10 

von  Baer,   (Quoted),  98 

Weakest   Part,    120 
Weissman   (Quoted),  97 
Westermarck,  (Quoted),  48 
Whitman,  79,  85 
Wilson,  (Quoted),  85 
Woman,  Neolithic,  55 
Wundt,  (Quoted),  115 


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